This guide intends to refer NWC community users to accurate information. However, information received from the NWC Library or the NWC Copyright Librarian is neither legal advice/opinion nor legal counsel to the college or any members of the NWC community. Please contact the NWC Office of General Counsel or NWC Staff Judge Advocate's Office for NWC-related legal advice and interpretation of the law, or personal counsel for personal legal advice. The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by NWC of sites or the information, products, or services contained therein, nor does NWC exercise editorial control over the information found at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this guide. U.S. copyright law is subject to change.
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides rightsholders with a number of free copyright license options, which help rightsholders manage their rights and universally communicate to others how their works may be used. Creative Commons licenses provide a “some rights reserved” option for rightsholders who want to let others use their works under certain conditions. Creative Commons licenses help content creators share their work more freely than copyright law allows.
Copyright law protects an original work the moment it is put into a fixed form (so the moment the words are written, the video is recorded, or a picture is snapped) and states that there are certain exclusive rights with regards to the work that only the creator holds. See the Copyright Law page for more information.
Fortunately, some authors and creators are willing to share their work more freely than U.S. copyright law currently allows. In order to make their wishes clear to both users and the law, they often license their work. A license details the terms and conditions the author has established with regards to using their work without each user having to seek permission directly from the rightsholder. There are many different types of licenses but some of the most common and useful in an academic setting are Creative Commons Licenses.
Please keep in mind, attribution is an integral step for using any work with a CC license. If you don’t include an attribution, you’re in violation of the license.
Please see this YouTube video from 2002 explaining why Creative Commons was founded and what it aims to do.
*Helpful Tool: Microsoft has a CC licenses plug-in that can be downloaded and used to embed CC licenses into Word and PowerPoint documents.
Shaddim; "Creative Commons License Spectrum," CC-BY 4.0
When using materials for a course or for academic research and publication, you may see work with a Creative Commons license attached to it. What does that mean?
A Creative Commons license is a grant of permission from the author to the public (or a segment of the public) to use portions of work otherwise protected by copyright without first obtaining permission from the rightsholder (within certain established international guidelines).
This may be a good way for educators, as well, to share their work freely if they wish to do so. Just remember that if an author puts a Creative Commons license on their work, they are permitting others to use the work only under the conditions designated in that license.
The Creative Commons website contains descriptions of their different types of licenses. Depending on the specification(s) in the license, the user may be permitted to do only certain things with the work (for instance a CC-NC license designates that only non-commercial uses are permitted).
Creative Commons also provides a public domain waiver tool (CC0) and a Public Domain Mark tool. Copyright owners may use the CC0 tool to waive all rights to their work, essentially placing the work within the public domain. Individuals may also affix the Public Domain Mark to works that are free of known copyright around the world, helping others to discover works that are free to use.
The following descriptions of the Creative Commons licenses come from About the Licenses by Creative Commons and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Benefits of licensing your work under one of the Creative Commons licenses
Licensing your work under one of the Creative Commons licenses provides many benefits, including:
Checking that you hold the copyright
Before applying a license to a work, be sure that you hold the copyright. Under U.S. law, the initial rightsholder is the author of the work. In most cases, copyright law treats the creator(s) of the work as the author(s). Authors who create a work jointly share copyright in it. If someone creates a work as an employee (or in certain cases, as a contractor), that person’s employer is considered the author of the work (this will depend on the employee's contract with their employer). More information about who holds a copyright is available on the Copyright Law page.
If you were the initial rightsholder, consider whether you have transferred or licensed some or all of your exclusive rights of copyright to others (like a publisher). If you have, the terms of that agreement may impact your ability to license the work now under a Creative Commons license.
Selecting and applying a Creative Commons license
The Creative Commons License Chooser can help you select a license for your work. It asks you about your licensing preferences. Based on that information, it selects a license. It also provides HTML code or text that you can use to mark the work with the license. If you provide attribution information for the work, the HTML code includes that information as machine-readable metadata.
If you are considering licensing works that you create under Creative Commons licensing, be sure to browse through CreativeCommons.org's FAQ page. This page addresses questions regarding international rights, dual licensing, print works, and more. Once you have decided that a Creative Commons license is right for you, adding one to your work is straight-forward. You simply have to decide what rights you would like to grant to users to your work. Do you want them to be able to remix your work? Share it? Use it commercially? CreativeCommons.org provides a license chooser tool that walks you through these decisions. For more information about each, look through the About the Licenses page on CreativeCommons.org.
Where can I find more information on Creative Commons?
Visit CreativeCommons.org for a basic overview. If you're looking for in-depth information or have a specific question, visit the Creative Commons FAQ page.
What types of works use Creative Commons licenses?
Any work that can be copyrighted can be licensed under Creative Commons. However, there are a few types of works that might be better served by a different type of license (e.g., computer software). For more information, see General License Information on the CC FAQ page.
What are the parts of a Creative Commons license?
When you use choose a license using the Creative Commons website, the resulting license is made up of three layers. The first layer is legal language; it is the legal description of the permissions you are granting to users of your work. Typically, people can access this layer by clicking on a Creative Commons image located within your work. The second layer is an image with symbols and letters that are easily recognizable by users. Here is an example of an Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) image:
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike.
The final layer is not visible to the user, only to computers. This machine-readable portion of the license allows your image to be categorized as Creative Commons by search engines like Google. That way, when someone searches for images that are licensed, your work is quickly recognized and returned in that search. To read a more complete explanation, visit the About the Licenses page on the Creative Commons website.
Creative Commons licenses provide copyright owners with different options to allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of their works. These options include the following:
How do I provide attribution when using a Creative Commons licensed work?
Attribution is a term found in all Creative Commons licenses. In general, your attribution should include:
Attribution can be made in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which you plan to share the work. The elements listed above can be incorporated into the citation style for your discipline. The Best Practices for Attribution are outlined on the Creative Commons wiki.
What are the benefits of using a Creative Commons license?
Creative Commons licenses benefit both rightsholders and content users.
Rightsholders retain ownership in the work but choose license terms that best suit their own individual needs. Creative Commons provides these legally enforceable licenses to rightsholders free of charge. By making a work available under a Creative Commons license, rightsholders easily communicate the terms under which their work may be used. They may use the CC license to prohibit (or allow) commercial use, prohibit (or allow) remixes or adaptations of their work (derivatives), and/or require new derivative works to be made available under similar open license terms. By making their work available under an open license, rightsholders allow their work to be easily accessed and used by content users all over the world, a decision which promotes a sharing culture, supports education, and encourages the creation of new works.
Creative Commons also offers great benefits for content users. Individuals may use CC-licensed works for free so long as they follow the terms of the license applied to each work. This open license removes the need for individual negotiations and permissions. A Creative Commons license clarifies for users what they are permitted to do with the work and the terms under which the work may be used. All licenses are available in a “human readable” format, which reduces ambiguity and minimizes uncertainty surrounding use.
Can Creative Commons licenses be revoked?
No. CC licenses are irrevocable, so you should be sure that the license you select is the one that best suits your needs.
What constitutes a derivative work?
It largely depends on which local copyright laws apply to the work. Under U.S. law, a derivative work is defined in 17 U.S.C. § 101. In general, if you have changed a work so much that it would warrant its own copyright privileges, it is considered an adaptation or derivative work, which would generally require permission of the original author (note that if the cc license does not contain a "no derivatives" prohibition, derivative works are permissible).
How does Creative Commons work internationally?
There are two general types of Creative Commons licenses: unported and ported. Unported licenses are broad and considered acceptable for international use. The Creative Commons organization has worked with a variety of jurisdictions and examined international agreements regarding copyright to ensure that these licenses allow creators to grant permission to use their works. Unported licenses are great for granting use privileges to as many people as possible all over the world.
What about public domain?
Works that are in the public domain are not copyrightable and therefore cannot be covered by Creative Commons licenses. Should you find a work that is in the public domain and want to make sure others know, Creative Commons has created a public domain mark that can be applied to the work. However, this mark is not intended for works that are under copyright that you wish to waive your rights to. When you apply a Creative Commons license to your work, some of your rights are reserved. If you wish to give up all of your rights and place your work directly into the public domain, Creative Commons offers a public domain license, known as a CC0.
Yes. Please visit: https://creativecommons.org/about/cc-trainings/
The following websites have the option to search for Creative Commons licensed works or are largely devoted to freely useable works. Before using a work, always review the terms of use for the source you are using as well as the copyright status of each individual item you would like to use. Some collections include a mixture of public domain, openly licensed, and other copyrighted material. Some sites may contain third party postings or require the creation of an account.