Sharing in Detail

What are Creative Commons licenses?

The Creative Commons organization created a suite of licenses that are carefully designed to give copyright holders a range of options for giving advance permissions. These licenses were written by a team of lawyers and have been vetted in the U.S. legal system - so they are much more legally sound than attempting to create your own license. By attaching a Creative Commons license to your work you will be telling your readers the kinds of uses you allow them to make of your work. If they would like to use your work in ways outside of those described in the license, they must contact you for individual permission.

Mix-and-match options

Creative Commons licenses are modular, and effectively ask the copyright holder to make a series of decisions about permitted uses. While each license is backed up by substantial legal text, the concepts they describe have been condensed into symbols which can quickly and easily alert users to the terms of the license. All creative commons licenses include the following image and abbreviation:

CC – Creative Commons

Beyond that, there are two major categories of license:

BY – Attribution - meaning users must name you as the originator of the work

and

CC0 – CC Zero means that the creator has relinquished all of his or her rights to the extent allowed by law.

The ETDAdministrator system assumes that you would like attribution, so all of the licenses offered in the system will include the BY option. Ask yourself the following questions to determine whether CC-BY is enough for you, or if you would like to add any of the additional potential clauses:

Is commercial use ok with me?

If yes, do nothing. If no, add the NC – Noncommercial uses clause.

Is it ok for users to alter my work, or incorporate sections of it into a new work?

If yes, do nothing. If no, add the ND – No derivative uses clause.

If I allow others to make derivative works, do I care how they license that derivative work?

If you want to make sure that any derivative work is distributed with the same license that you used on your original work, add the Creative Commons Share Alike logo SA – Share alike clause.

License combinations

When combined, these symbols creative specific Creative Commons licenses that provide accommodations for anyone to use their work while also receiving credit for their original content.

CC BY: Attribution

CC BY is the most accommodating license as it allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.

CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms.

CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivs

This allows others to redistribute your work—commercially or non-commercially—as long as they credit you and do not alter your work.

CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial

This lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work only for non-commercial purposes as long as they acknowledge you.

CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms.

CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

This license is the most restrictive, allowing only the sharing of your work them with others as long as they credit you, do not change the work or use it commercially.

Resources from this module

Website: Creative Commons
Guide: Creative Commons Licenses
Contact: uwlib-scp@uw.edu

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