Open licenses exist to help authors share their work for others to use, while still retaining the rights. Creative Commons licenses are free, easy to use licenses that copyright holders can apply to any type of copyrighted work. By using a Creative Commons license, the copyright holder is permitting others to reuse their work as long as they are properly credited. Using a Creative Commons license is as simple as choosing a license and labeling the work with the license title or icon. There are six Creative Commons licenses available that provide various permissions of reuse.
By using a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work, others are able to reuse the material without explicit permission. This provides benefits to both the copyright holder and the user: the work is easier to reuse, allowing for the work to have potentially higher impact, and it is immediately clear to the user how they are able to reuse the work.
Creative Commons licenses quick reference
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Types of CC Licenses |
CC License Icons |
Rights through this license |
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Attribution CC BY |
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This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. |
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Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA |
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This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. |
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Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND |
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This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to you. |
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Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC |
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This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. |
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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA |
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This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND |
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This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. |
