Creative Commons Licenses
The Six Different Creative Commons Licenses
The six Creative Commons licenses allow differing levels of openness.
The attribution or CC Links to an external site. license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, 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 material.
The attribution-ShareAlike or CC BY SA Links to an external site. 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 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. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
The Attribution-NoDerivatives or CC BY ND Links to an external site. license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. This license is not an OER.
The Attribution-NonCommercial or CC BY NC Links to an external site. license lets others remix, tweak, 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.
The Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike or CC BY NC SA Links to an external site. license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
The Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives or CC BY NC ND Links to an external site. 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. This license is not an OER.
You can learn much more about CC licenses on the Creative Commons website Links to an external site.. The Creative Commons FAQ page Links to an external site. is particularly helpful for detailed information about using the licenses.
OER Licensing and Attributions. Links to an external site. This webinar will provide an overview of the various Creative Commons licenses, how content with different licenses can be combined, and how to give proper attributions.
Slides Links to an external site. for the presentation above
Attributions
About the Licenses Links to an external site., Creative Commons Links to an external site., Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license Links to an external site.