How to Use Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons is sometimes referred to as “some rights reserved”. The license elements, or features, below describe the rights that the creator is reserving. These can be combined to create a license that is customized yet clear.

Attribution: This is the baseline right that creators reserve when sharing work with a CC License. Attribution can be done in any “reasonable” way, but at minimum requires the original works title, creators name, and the license abbreviation. See How to Use CC Licenses for more details on proper attribution.

Share Alike: This element requires users that are creating derivative works to use the same license the creator used.
 

Non-Commercial: This element prohibits the work and any derivatives from being used for commercial purposes.

 No Derivatives: This element allows for sharing, combining, and reuse of the work, but does not allow users to remix or revise it for sharing (changes for personal use are allowed).

Attribution

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed work, even commercially, as long as they give proper attribution for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, and is recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

Attribution Share-Alike

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed work even for commercial purposes, as long as they give proper attribution and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Attribution Non-Commercial

This license lets others use, share, remix, tweak, and build upon the licensed work for any non-commercial purpose (regardless of the person or entity using it). Although uses/new works must also give attribution and be non-commercial, users don’t have to license any derivative works on the same terms.

Attribution No-Derivatives

This license lets others reuse the licensed work for any purpose, including commercial; however, it cannot be shared with others in any adapted form, and proper attribution must be given.

Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike

This license lets others use, share, remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they give proper attribution and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives

This license is the most restrictive of Creative Commons licenses, only allowing works to be shared if unchanged with proper attribution for non-commercial purposes. As with CC-BY-ND, users can’t change and share these works, but can make changes for personal or private use.

Creative Commons also has tools for sharing things in the Public Domain, with zero restrictions on reuse, sharing, remixing, or adaptation. This option differs from the other CC licenses because it is not a license, and reserves no rights for the author, not even attribution. If you see the marks below, you can use the works without restriction.
To dedicate a work to the public domain, creators can use CC0:

The slightly different Public Domain mark below is designed for museums and other collections to designate works already in the public domain (such as those with expired copyright terms). If you see this mark, it means a work is in the public domain and can be used without restriction. Creators wanting to dedicate works to the public domain should use the mark above.

As a User:

• Understand the license terms.
• Give proper attribution.
  • The best practice for attribution is “TASL: Title, Author, Source, License”.
  • Include links to the source of the work and the license.
    For example: “Three ‘Layers’ of Creative Commons Licenses” by Creative Commons under CC-BY 3.0 Unported

As a Creator:

• Choose your license elements (or conditions) to get the license that works for you. The CC License Chooser for help.
• Link to the license so that others can understand the terms and give proper attribution.
• Mark your work using the abbreviations or icons found on this page so that others know it is licensed with Creative Commons. 

Fair use is an exception to copyright. Creative Commons has no impact on any exceptions to copyright. If you feel that your use of a work is considered fair use under the 4 criteria (amount used, purpose of use, nature of the original work, and market impact) then Creative Commons need not impact the way you use a work. Creative Commons is often used to give users more options on what they can do with the works that are licensed, so this does not create a conflict.