LibGuides: Scholarly Communications: Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License Components

Components

Creative Commons licenses are made up of one, two, or three of the following components. Each component specifies what a potential user of a licensed work might do with that work. There are six Creative Commons licenses. Each is a combination of the following.

	Attribution All CC licenses require that those who use a work in any way must give credit to its creator in the way requested by that person, but not in a way that suggests the creator endorses the user or their use. If one would like to use a work without crediting the creator, they must first get permission to do so.
	ShareAlike You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.
	NoDerivs You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.
	NonCommercial You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivs) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.

The Six CC Licenses

Licenses

The following are all six Creative Commons licenses; their symbols, their names, their abbreviations, and explanations of their permissions.

Attribution

CC BY

This 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 materials.

Attribution – ShareAlike

CC BY-SA

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 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.

Attribution – NoDerivs

CC BY-ND

This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attribution – NonCommercial

CC BY-NC

This 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.

Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike

CC BY-NC-SA

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 the identical terms.

Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs

CC BY-NC-ND

This 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.

Attribution

The content on this page was created by Jen Waller for the Creative Commons guide at the University of Oklahoma Libraries.