Adopting & Creating OER
13 Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons licenses give creators a standardized way to grant permission to use their work within the current boundaries of copyright law. According to the Creative Commons About page, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work provides an easy-to-find answer to the question, What can I do with this work?
CC Licenses Explained
The Three Layers of Creative Commons Licenses
- Legal Code: The base layer, written so that terms and conditions of licenses are enforceable by law
- Legal Code Defined by Creative Commons
- Deeds: A shorter version of the legal code that is easily understood by creators and users. They include some of the key features and terms of the actual license.
- Machine-readable code: Each license includes HTML to place in a webpage. The HTML contains metadata that allows search engines to recognize the unique permissions of each license.
The Four Elements of a Creative Commons License
Licenses are made up of four conditions that can be used separately or together to describe how the work can be used.
Attribution (BY) – Attribution to the original creator is required, all licenses require this except the public domain dedication CC0 1.0 Universal.
ShareAlike (SA) – Adapt and/or share work, adaptations must be licensed under the same license. See the CC BY SA 4.0 deed.
NonCommercial (NC) – Adapt and/or share work for nonCommercial use. NonCommercial depends on the use, not the identity of the reuser.
NoDerivatives (ND) – Copy and share material in any format for any purpose, but if work is adapted, you cannot share the modified material.
For detailed information about the licenses see the Creative Commons FAQ.
The Six CC Licenses
Attribution license (CC BY) – Attribution required, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. No additional restrictions. You can revise, remix, retain, redistribute and reuse the work, even commercially.
Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) – Attribution required. You can revise, remix, retain, redistribute and reuse the work, even commercially. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your work under the same license as the original.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) – Attribution required. You can revise, remix, retain, redistribute and reuse the work, but you may not use the material for commercial purposes.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) – Attribution required. You can revise, remix, retain, redistribute and reuse the work, but you may not use the material for commercial purposes and if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your work under the same license as the original.
Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) – Attribution required. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) – Attribution required. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. This is the most restrictive license.
The Two Public Domain Tools
Creative Commons licenses do not apply to works already in the public domain. Additionally, creators may choose to add their work to the public domain.
Creative Commons Zero (CC0) – No rights reserved. Creators waive all their copyright and related rights in their works to the fullest extent allowed by law.
CC Public Domain Mark – Designation for works that are no longer restricted by copyright, usually very old material.
Creative Commons Licenses and Fair Use
CC licenses work within the framework of current copyright law and therefore, do not supersede any exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. A CC license cannot restrict use of public domain works or uses that fall under the four factors of fair use.
Attribution
Concepts and layout from the 2024 CC Certificate for Librarians course under a CC BY 4.0 license, unless otherwise noted.
Image of CC licenses meter: This file is made available under the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
