This guide intends to provide and refer 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. U.S. Copyright Law is subject to change.
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 that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this guide.
Open licenses allow content creators to specify which uses they permit for their work without permission and under what conditions. The most popular open licenses are Creative Commons licenses.
Open licenses do not replace or annul copyright. Openly licensed content still belongs to its creator, but specific uses are permitted to the public under each license type. Some are very permissive and some are more restrictive.
When you use Creative Commons licensed content, the time spent searching for a copyright owner to ask permission to reuse, remix, or share “All Rights Reserved” content is channeled to research, create new works, or teaching.
Different Creative Commons licenses permit and/or limit specific uses. The following is an infographic to help explain what is permitted and required by each license (in context with public domain and standard "all rights reserved"). Licenses are organized top to bottom from most open to least.
CC BY Aaron McCollough (adapted from a table by Anita Walz)
Adapted from George Mason University CC-BY 4.0 International License