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Open Access, Open Education, and Copyright

All things Open at UNA

Creative Commons

   Understanding Creative Commons

Creative Commons licenses are built on existing copyright law - they work with copyright, not against it.  Creative Commons allows creators more flexibility when it comes to sharing the work they have created with others. Copyright can be restrictive, especially since the advent of digital sharing via the internet. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that published its first licenses in 2002 and has helped creators share their works in Open Education, Open Access publishing, Open Source Software, Open Data, Open Science, & Open Innovation.  To date, there are over 1 BILLION CC-Licensed works.

Text adapted from “What is Creative Commons”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 and from “Creative Commons Today”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. 

Logo from https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. 

The Creative Commons Licenses

There are 6 different CC licenses. The licenses are built with three layers:

  • Legal Code - terms and conditions that can be legally enforced in court
  • Commons Deed - summary of the terms in common, non-legal language
  • Machine Readable - metadata that facilitates the code being read by the web and helps your CC-licensed works be discoverable

The following four elements can be combined to make the six licenses, usually represented by the symbols:

  • Attribution - included in all CC licenses. You can use/alter the work any way you want as long as you credit the creator
  • NonCommercial - included in 3 of the 6 licenses. You can reuse the work but only for non-commercial purposes
  • ShareAlike - included in 2 of the 6 licenses. You can adapt & share the work, but only with the same license 
  • NoDerivatives - included in 2 of the licenses. You cannot publicly share adaptations of the work.

The six licenses and how they work:

 

 

Text adapted and symbols taken from “Anatomy of a CC License”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. 

Public Doman Tools

Creative Commons also supports 2 Public Domain Tools:

 This is the CC Zero mark - it allows creators to dedicate their work to the public domain and contains the same 3 layers of the CC License. Creators can apply this to their work and then anyone can use it with no strings attached.

 This is the Public Domain Mark.  This is not a legal tool, but can be placed on items in the public domain to let users know that the work in question has no copyright restrictions.

Text adapted and symbols taken from “Anatomy of a CC License”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0. 

Exceptions and Limitations to CC Licenses

Exceptions and Limitations

  • CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license.
  • CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain - they do not place restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted. You cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it.
  • If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication.
  • If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.

 

Text adapted from “Creative Commons FAQ”  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.