Creative Commons licences

A copyright licence is a contract where a copyright owner, which may be a publisher, artist, writer or photographer, has given permission to a person, or an institution, to use their work in a particular way.  The licence will stipulate how the copyrighted material can be used, such as whether it can be reproduced and shared online, adapted or modified, reprinted in hardcopy, or only used for a specific period of time.

Most copyright licences are restrictive and are for the use of a part of a publication or creative work by one person in a particular circumstance, for instance the reproduction of a diagram in a thesis.

Works published under Creative Commons licences are applied to works by authors/creators to enable reproduction and sharing under certain conditions.

Creative Commons is an organisation that provides a suite of standardised licences for copyright owners to apply to their creations that permit others to use their work in certain ways. 

A Creative Commons licence enables the creator or author to retain copyright over their work but allows other people to copy and distribute the copyrighted work provided they meet the stipulations of the license.

Depending on the chosen Creative Commons licence, users may be permitted to:

• copy
• distribute
• edit
• remix
• build upon a work. 

Creative Commons licences are internationally recognised and are both 'human readable' and 'machine readable'. 

Every Creative Commons licence incorporates three layers

1. legal code
2. human readable text
3. machine readable encoding

Creative Commons licences all contain one basic condition and/or other core conditions combined to provide different or more restrictive permissions to users. It is important to follow the terms and conditions of each licence.

Always provide a link to the licence deed so the person using the work can read the terms of use.

The core conditions

Attribution - (BY): The core condition by which the user of the work is required to attribute the work to the creator by proper referencing (See example below).

Share Alike - (SA): This condition allows copies and adaptations of the work to be reproduced and shared under the same licence.  

Non-Commercial - (NC): This condition requires that all uses of the work must be for non-commercial purposes, e.g. educational.

No Derivatives - (ND): This condition does not allow any remixes or derivative copies of the original material to be shared. 

 BY     SA    NC    ND

The six standard Creative Commons Licences

Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International
All CC licences carry this BY requirement, meaning anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence allows users to copy, distribute, remix, transform and build upon a work even for commercial purposes.

Attribution-Sharealike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International
Anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence allows all CC BY uses and further stipulates that any new works based on the original creation must be licensed under the same terms, i.e. a CC BY-SA licence.

Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International
Anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence further stipulates that the material cannot be commercialised. 

Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International
Anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence allows distribution and adaptation of the work but only for non-commercial purposes and the new work must be licensed under the same terms, i.e. CC BY-NC-SA licence. 

Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 International
Anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence allows copying and distribution of the original work but no adaptations or modified versions of the work may be distributed. 

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International
Anyone using the work must attribute the work to the original creator.  The licence allows copying and distribution of the original work but the material may not be used for commercial purposes and no adaptations or modified versions of the work may be distributed. 

Important Note: CC licences can only operate where copyright exists and cannot be applied to a work that is already in the public domain.

By citing a work/image/video correctly, you acknowledge and respect the intellectual property rights of the author/creator/researcher. Works provided under a CC licence require attribution and a link back to the source and CC licence when used.

Always provide a link to the licence deed so the person using the work can read the terms of use as in this example.

Authorised burning in the Top End by CSIRO licensed under CC BY 3.0.

References should include hyperlinks to the Source and Licence:

• Title and Source:  Authorised burning in the Top End
• Author: CSIRO
• Licence: CC BY 3.0

More referencing examples

CC image sources

Creative Commons, as an organisation, recommends that institutions, researchers, educators and creators releasing copyright protected works into the public domain use the CC0 public domain dedication.

CC0  (CC 1.0) Universal Public Domain Dedication

This identifies works that may be freely adapted, modified, enhanced and reused for any purpose without copyright restriction or permission.

Creators can waive their copyright ownership and give their work openly and freely to the world.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an Open Access Policy using CC0.  See The Harvesters artwork with the OA symbol leading to the CCO deed.

Creative Commons has set up an easy-to-use 'Licence Features' page to help creators choose the licence most suitable for their work. Creators can select a licence, enter attribution metadata and provides all the information in HTML for pasting into webpages.

Consider what you would like to achieve by sharing your work before selecting one of the six available CC licences. For example, if you want to contribute to a Wikipedia article your work must carry a CC BY-SA licence. 

This flowchart will help you make a decision.

The Creative Commons Resources Collection provides informative resources about Creative Commons the organisation, global network and the set of licences used to share creative works. The collection consists of presentations, posters, and an infographic. All are available under Creative Commons licences to share and reuse. 

Always include the CC licence when reusing, adapting, distributing or citing material with a CC licence.