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Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers licenses that copyright owners may use to welcome the utilization of their copyrighted works. A license, in general, is a legal tool that grants permission to an individual to complete an action or to gain entrance to a venue. Therefore, a Creative Commons license gives potential subsequent users permission to use a copyrighted work in specific guises. Creative Commons offers six separate licenses that grant distinct and specific uses of copyrighted works, and Creative Commons also offers a license creation tool with which one can create each of these licenses. The validity and reliability of Creative Commons licenses is upheld in courts around the world, and numerous academies are now creating policies to guide their use of these licenses with various types of open courseware such as massive open online courses, mobile tools, distance-learning venues, data, and other Web 2.0 tools. Creative Commons also offers a public domain legal tool, and tools that help users locate works licensed with Creative Commons licenses. This entry first discusses how Creative Commons licenses are used and what uses are allowed by the different types of licenses. It then discusses how to locate works with a Creative Commons license, how to generate the licenses, the legal status of the licenses, and how universities are using the licenses.

Creative Commons and Copyright

Individuals are often confused about whether and how they may use copyrighted works. Applying a Creative Commons license to a copyrighted work, a creator or organization can dispel some of the confusion by specifying ways in which subsequent users may implement a copyrighted work. Specific uses granted by a license are conveyed via three different means: a machine readable code that computers may interpret, a human readable text that explains the terms of the license in layman’s language, and a legalese version of text that conveys the exact legal terms of the license.

The use of Creative Commons licenses does not reduce a licensor’s copyrights. Therefore, by licensing a copyrighted work with a Creative Commons license, an original creator retains the right to distribute, reproduce, make derivatives, display, and perform the original work; and additionally, the license alerts and welcomes subsequent use of the copyrighted work by others.

Different Types of Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons offers six distinct licenses, all of which grant varying combinations of non-exclusive uses. The uses permitted by each license are conveyed via five different abbreviations: CC (Creative Commons), BY (attribution), NC (noncommercial use), ND (no derivatives), and SA (share alike). The six Creative Commons licenses consist of

  • The CC BY license, which is the most liberal license, mandates that proper attribution be given to the original creator of the licensed work. It further allows a subsequent user to distribute, create derivatives of, reproduce, display, and use the licensed work for noncommercial or commercial purposes.
  • The CC BY-SA license mandates proper attribution is given to the original creator of the licensed work. It also allows subsequent users to distribute, create derivatives of, reproduce, display, and use the licensed work for noncommercial or commercial purposes. This license further requires that any reproductions or derivatives be licensed with the same CC BY-SA license.
  • The CC BY-ND license mandates proper attribution is given to the original creator of the licensed work. It also allows subsequent users to distribute or display the original work “as is,” allows for commercial or noncommercial use of its work, but prevents the creation of any derivatives of the original work.
  • The CC BY-NC allows subsequent users to reproduce, distribute, create derivatives of, and display the licensed work; however, the work may not be used for a commercial purpose. The subsequent user must also give proper attribution to the original creator of the work.
  • The CC BY-NC-SA license mandates proper attribution to the original creator and allows subsequent users to reproduce, distribute, create derivatives of, and display the licensed work. However, any subsequent users must not use the original work or any derivatives of the work for commercial purposes, and must license any reproductions or derivatives with the same license (CC BY-NC-SA).
  • The CC BY-NC-ND license is the most restrictive license and it mandates proper attribution to the original creator. This license also permits the distribution and display of the original work “as is,” but it prohibits any commercial use or derivatives of the licensed work.

Creative Commons also offers the CC0 legal tool, which is also referred to as the no rights reserved tool. By applying the CC0 legal tool to a work, this allows a copyright owner to waive all copyright interest in the work and it is immediately placed into the public domain.

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