What is a Creative Commons license?
What is a Creative Commons licence?
The OpenContent directory encourages the use of Creative Commons licensing.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation devoted to expanding the range of creative works available to others to legally share and build upon. The organisation has released several variations of copyright licences which allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Creative Commons has been described as being at the forefront of the 'Copyleft' movement, which seeks to support the building of a richer public domain by providing an alternative 'Some rights reserved' compared to the traditional 'All rights reserved' licence.
For more information on Creative Commons consult the document What is Creative Commons?
| License | Clause | Code | Meaning for Users | Meaning for Creators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Attribution | BY | Attribution is always implied when using the Creative Commons license. This license will ensure anyone who uses your work will give you credit for being the creator. | You can use the content as long as you reference the original creator. |
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Non-Commercial | NC | You can freely use the work as long as it is not for commercial gain. | Your work will not be used by others for commercial gain. |
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No Derivatives | ND | You can use the work in its original verbatim form alone. You may not adapt or re-work the material. | Your work will be available for use in its original form and will not be modified. |
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Share Alike | SA | You can use the content freely as long as you also share it using the same license in which you found it. | Anyone who uses your work will share it the same way you have, ensuring the continuing openness of your original work. |
Creative commons gives us space to operate between full copyright and the public domain. Each license combines a set of restrictions which protect certain rights while letting others know what they can do with the material. Some of the licenses are quite restrictive and actually resemble full copyright while others are quite lenient and require attribution only. The chart below shows the full range of licenses available.
Read more about Creative Commons at:
http://creativecommons.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons