Creative Commons is an open licensing scheme in which creators retain the rights to their own work, but grant a licence to others to copy and distribute it in a certain manner and without the need to seek permission or pay royalties.
There are several types of licences. Some only allow material to be used as-is, while others allow users to modify the material for their own needs or to use it commercially.
Creative Commons:
- provides user-friendly open licences for digital content
- takes into consideration the various copyright laws in different countries
- provides licences which include basic author rights
- enables authors to grant permission to make copies or make changes to their work
- enables authors to apply restrictions on permissions.
The six main licences:
Understanding Creative Commons licences conditions
Attribution
- You must attribute the material in the way the author requests.
- If you want to use the work without attributing the author/creator, or for endorsement purposes, you must get permission first.
NonCommercial
- You can copy, distribute, display, perform and modify the work for any purpose, except commercially, unless you get permission first.
ShareAlike
- You can copy, distribute, display, perform and modify the work, as long as you distribute any modified work under the same terms/licence.
- If you want to distribute modified works under other terms, then you must get permission first.
NoDerivatives
- You can copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of the work.
- You cannot modify the work, unless you get permission first.
Resources
Watch the following videos:
For more information, visit these pages:
