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Creative Commons Licenses

Information on Creative Commons licenses and Copyright

Selecting A Creative Commons License for your Work

Once you are familiar with Creative Commons licensing, you may want to consider applying the licenses to your own original work.  You may also have adapted or changed the original work of others and would like to mark the adapted work appropriately.  This page will help guide you through things to think about as you decide to license your work under a Creative Commons license.  

 

There are some important considerations before applying a license.

  1. The Creative Commons license and CC0 are irrevocable.  Once a CC license is applied to a work, it remains in effect until the copyright for the work has expired.

  2. You must own or control copyright of the work.

If you decide to use a CC License, you also need to determine which license to use.  Here are some questions to ask yourself.

  1. How do you hope people will reuse your work?
  2. Do you want to use your images on Wikipedia which will not allow any NC or ND licenses?
  3. Do you want to give away all your rights so that it can be used by anyone for any purpose?

Once these questions are answered, you will then need to apply your license correctly.

 

 

 

4.1 Choosing and Applying a CC License | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-1-choosing-and-applying-a-cc-license/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

To apply a Creative Commons license to a work you need to indicate which CC license you are applying.

  • When you are applying a license you want to be sure that it is:
    • Visible
    • Easy to find
    • Avoids contradictory terms
    • Always keeps the user in mind
  • The license chooser tool can help you select a license.  It is not a registration page.
  • Be sure to apply as much information as possible about the license.
  • Mark your work and indicate if your work is based on someone else's work using the TASL approach.

 

 

 

4.1 Choosing and Applying a CC License | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-1-choosing-and-applying-a-cc-license/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

TASL is an acronym for:

  • T = Title
  • A = Author (who should receive credit)
  • S = Source (provide a link to the resource)
  • L = License (link to the Creative Commons license deed)

 

 

4.1 Choosing and Applying a CC License | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-1-choosing-and-applying-a-cc-license/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

 

Creating a Collection

In creating your own work, you may choose to reuse work by others.

 

In a Collection, works from different sources are identified and then organized in a new way, but they remain as separate objects and are not changed.

 

A few examples of a collection could be recipes from different cookbooks, photographs in an album, or poems by different authors.

 

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

 

A Collection must contain attribution and licensing information about each individual work in the collection.

  • Who created what parts of the collection should be identified
  • Which license applies to what content should be identified

New contributions to the collection would fall under copyright for the creator.  For example, in a collection of recipes from different cookbooks, the creator owns the copyrights on the arrangement of the recipes, an introduction at the beginning of the book, and any original materials within the book.  The content, or each individual recipe in this case, is not the creator's to license.

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

General Guidelines to consider when selecting a Creative Commons License for a collection:

  • "you are not required to apply a ShareAlike-license to your overall work if you are using an SA-licensed work within it;
  • the ND restriction does not prevent you from using an ND-licensed work; and
  • you can combine that CC-licensed material with other work as long as you attribute and comply with the NonCommercial restriction if it applies."

 

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

Following United States History Through Soup Recipes: Recipes from 1860-1920 is an example of a collection.

  • Recipes for soup were collected from cookbooks that are in the Public Domain in the United States and are available on Project Gutenberg.
  • The recipes were not altered in any way.  Each cookbook title and author is noted on each page.  Full citations are available at the end of the book.
  • Each cookbook is identified with a public domain CC license mark and 'in the United States' has been added so that other users are aware of where the public domain mark is applicable.
  • The cover, the introduction, the introductory paragraph for each cookbook, and the conclusion are all original and the Creative Commons license has been applied to the original content.

Click on the cover below or the link above to view the entire collection.

Following United States History Through Soup Recipes: Recipes from 1860 - 1920 © 2021 by Naulayne Enders is licensed under CC BY 4.0 

 

 

Enders, Naulayne. Following United States History Through Soup Recipes: Recipes from 1860 - 1920. 2021, https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR7qTLmap_IY3JV62vkOrva0hdC3Xx9hQP3N_V3Su9ThKurFDgwmPMIRXBmmj5GETCQ9U0OIEL3wx0L/pub.

Remixed/ Adapted/ Derivative Works

As in Collections, Adaptation/ Remix/ or Derivative works also use materials from many sources.

 

However, adaptation/remix/ or derivative indicates that the works have been changed.  These are changes that blend the works together and makes it difficult to determine what material came from what work.  Changes such as spelling are not significantly different enough to qualify as an adaptation/ remix/ or derivative.

 

For example, imagine you have an image of an eagle flying in a blue sky and an image of a mountain.  If you combine these into one image of an eagle flying over a mountain, you would have an adaptation/ remix/ or derivative.

 

The new image would then be licensed by the creator and include attribution for the creators of the original images.

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

 

Licensing an adapted/ remix/ or derivative work is a little more complicated than for a collection.  There are some general guidelines to follow:

  • "If the underlying work is licensed under a NoDerivatives license, you can make and use changes privately but you cannot share your adaptation with others, as discussed above.
  • If the underlying work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, then ShareAlike applies to your adaptation and you must license it under the same or a compatible license."
  • "You need to consider license compatibility. License compatibility is the term used to address the issue of which types of licensed works can be adapted into a new work.
  • In all cases, you have to attribute the original work when you create an adaptation."

 

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

 

Creative Commons provides an Adapters Licensing Chart and a Creative Commons Licensing Compatibility Chart to help in determining which license to select when combining different licenses in these works.

 


                  CC Adapters License Chart / CC BY 4.0

 

                        CC License Compatibility Chart / CC BY 4.0

 

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

 

References

4.1 Choosing and Applying a CC License | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-1-choosing-and-applying-a-cc-license/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work | Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-4-remixing-cc-licensed-work/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.

Enders, Naulayne. Following United States History Through Soup Recipes: Recipes from 1860 - 1920. 2021, https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR7qTLmap_IY3JV62vkOrva0hdC3Xx9hQP3N_V3Su9ThKurFDgwmPMIRXBmmj5GETCQ9U0OIEL3wx0L/pub.

Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/faq/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2021.