The internet has allowed for unprecedented sharing of information. Yet just because you can copy and paste an image or other creative work does not mean that you are legally entitled to do so. Whether or not someone officially registers the copyright for a creative work such as a poem or a photo, that work automatically has copyright protections in the U.S., typically for the life of the creator plus 70 years.
However, some people may not want their works to fall under the default copyright term and might want their works to be more easily shared and adapted to different needs and purposes. This is particularly true of many who work in education.
In response to this need for more open sharing that the internet can easily facilitate, a non-profit called Creative Commons was founded in 2002. Creative Commons (CC) has developed a series of free licenses that authors and other creators can apply to their works to allow them to be used more freely, providing a legal framework by which creators and users can have more clarity and specific control over the sharing of creative works. There are six licensing options, plus a seventh public domain marker. CC licenses are currently in version 4.0.
Image from Open Licensing and Open Education Licensing Policy by Cable Green, https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.c, licensed under CC BY 4.0
Attribution (BY): Users must credit the author
NonCommercial (NC): Works cannot be used for profit
ShareAlike (SA): Users must license adaptations under the same license
NoDerivatives (ND): Users cannot share adaptations
 Attribution CC BY |
Others can distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you. |
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Others can remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
 Attribution-NonCommercial CC-BY-NC |
Others can remix, adapt, 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-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA |
Others can remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
 Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND |
Others can reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to you. (Would not be considered OER.) |
 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND |
Others may 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. (Would not be considered OER.) |
