An Introduction to Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are the heart of the OER movement. In 2002, the non-profit Creative Commons Links to an external site. organization published their first version (1.0)1 of their open license suite to help creators more easily share their works within the "all rights reserved" restriction of copyright laws worldwide. It is important to note that CC licenses ARE copyright licenses. They do not replace copyright laws. Rather, CC licenses work on top of copyright laws to allow creators to specify more flexible forms of copyright that legally permit others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work. Some refer to this as a "some rights reserved" approach to copyright.

The Anatomy of CC Licenses

You are probably familiar with CC-licensed content through websites/pages (e.g., Wikipedia Links to an external site.), images (e.g., flickr Links to an external site.), or media (e.g., YouTub Links to an external site.e Links to an external site.). These sources include their license information, often at the bottom of webpages or in credit links, and they sometimes display clickable icons to indicate the specifics of their CC licensing terms. Examples:  Creative Commons License "BY" mandates that credit must be given to the creator of the work.     Creative Commons Licenses "BY" and "ND" mandate that credit must be given to the creator of the work, and also that no derivatives of the work are allowed.     Creative Commons Licenses "BY", "NC", and "SA" mandate that credit must be given to the creator of the work, only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted, and adaptations must be shared under the same terms.

 

The Four Elements of CC Licenses

There are four different elements that are used to form six separate Creative Commons licenses.

Each license element is symbolized by a visual icon for quick reference. They are:

CC BY Attribution logo Attribution or BY Indicates that the original work and creator must be credited in the manner they requested.  All CC licenses include this BY element to ensure that creators get credit for their work, but it can stand alone as a license on its own.
CC SA ShareAlike logo  ShareAlike or SA Indicates that any copies or adaptations of a work must be shared, i.e., licensed, with the same licensing terms as the original work.
  CC NC NonCommercial logo NonCommercial or NC
 Limits reuse of the work to noncommercial purposes only, defined as one that is “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” Whether or not a use is considered commercial depends on the specifics of the situation rather than who the user is. See CC's NonCommercial Interpretation page Links to an external site. for more information and examples. 
CC ND NoDerivatives logo  NoDerivatives or ND Prohibits the sharing of any adaptations or modified versions of the work. The work can only be shared in its original state. Note: The ND element does not prevent adaptations for non-public use.

The Six CC Licenses and What They Allow

The four elements are used to form six Creative Commons licenses. The infographic below explains the different Creative Commons licenses and what each license allows others to do with a work. Any restrictions are applicable only to users and not the licensor (i.e., the creator/rights holder). The icons and the element abbreviations provide a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the actual licenses.2

What is Creative Commons License? infographic from Foter.com including what the 6 licenses allow you to do.

A modification of "Creative Commons Free Ph Links to an external site.otos for Bloggers: The Ultimate Guide" Links to an external site.used under CC BY-SA 3.0 Links to an external site..

 

The brief video below from Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand explains CC Licenses in a fun way. 

"Creative Commons Kiwi" Links to an external site. by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Links to an external site. (CC BY) license. The video was made with support from InternetNZ and is a project of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Produced by Mohawk Media. 

 

A Note about Public Domain and CC

Creative Commons offers a public domain dedication tool as an option for creators who want to take a “no rights reserved” approach and relinquish their copyright entirely by placing their work in the public domain before the copyright term expires.

CC0 (Zero) Public Domain button  CC0 (read "CCZero"): If you hold the copyright to a work, you can use this public domain dedication tool (it is not a CC license per se) to waive all interests to your copyright, including attribution, making your work fully free to reuse worldwide. However, in some countries, this option to waive copyright may not be permissible, so CC0 includes a “fall back” license that allows anyone in the world to do anything with the work unconditionally. Additionally, when dedicating your work to the public domain, you promise to not assert your copyright against reuses. 

Public Domain Mark button  There is also the Public Domain Mark: It is often used by museums and archives to indicate to others that a work is free of known copyright restrictions.

You can revisit the Copyright, Fair Use & Public Domain for Instructors module for more information about works in the Public Domain. 

1The current version 4.0 of the CC license suite was published in November 2013. For information about the similarities and differences among the major license versions, see License Versions Links to an external site..

2CC licenses are built using a three layer design as illustrated here:

Creative Commons three layers of licenses image of three stacked layers, including machine readable licensing, human readable licensing using Creative Commons symbols, and legal code. 

“Three Layers of License Links to an external site.” by Creative Commons, Nathan Yergler, Alex Roberts is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Links to an external site.

  • A base - or "lawyer readable" - layer of Legal Code that is legally enforceable 
  • A human readable (or Commons Deeds) layer - the most well-known layer - that summarizes the Legal Code, and
  • A machine readable layer that uses CC Rights Expression Language (CC REL) metadata to aid discovery of CC-licensed works on the Web.

Information presented in this "OER Licensing" module has been adapted from " Links to an external site.Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM" Links to an external site. by Creative Commons Links to an external site.. CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.. Using the Original Work or the Adapted Work does not mean the individual doing so has earned a CC Certificate, nor may any organization or individual offer a “CC Certificate.”