Overview

Creative Commons licenses are copyright licenses that provide a simple, standardized way to give the  public permission to share and use a creative work - under a basic set of conditions. The licenses are designed to quickly and easily convey what a re-user can do with a work and what steps they need to take to do so. Below are the main CC license types, and how to navigate them.

The Basic Licenses

CC-BY (Attribution)

Works under CC BY grant educators the right to use and share the material freely, with any students/educators and in any setting (face-to-face and virtually). The material can be remixed, so changes of any sort are allowed. The only condition is that the author should be given conspicuous attribution. The best practice is to list the title of the work, the author, the source, and the license itself. 

Example: “In and Out of the Mitochondria...” by Joanna Schimizzi ,https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60249 , is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Attribution License.

CC-BY-ND (No Derivatives)

This license gives educators the rights to use/share the material freely, with any students/educators and in any setting (face-to-face and virtually). However, this resource cannot be remixed or changed in any way, including copy/paste or adding new materials. The condition is that the resource must be used in the exact form that it was created by the author, and the author should be attributed.  

Example: “Anchor Text Qualities” by Joanna Schimizzi, https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/60437-anchor-text-qualities , is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.

CC-BY-NC (Non Commercial)

This license gives educators the rights to use this material freely, with any students and in any setting (face-to-face and virtually) and can be remixed or changed in any way. The condition is that the resource cannot be used to gain commercial advantage or monetary compensation, and the author should be attributed. In the US education community, use in the classroom is generally considered non-commercial, even at tuition-charging institutions or private schools. 

Example: “Nature, Nurture, Neurotransmitter” by Joanna Schimizzi, https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/8179-nature-nurture-neurotransmitter-exit-tickets , is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.

CC-BY-SA (Share Alike)

This license gives educators the rights to use/share this material freely, with any students/educators and in any setting (face-to-face and virtually). The material can be remixed, so changes of any sort are allowed. The condition is that any remixes or adaptations must carry the same license as the original work. Any additional restrictions (such as Non Commercial) that the author includes on the original work must be passed on to any works derived from the original. If the work is the derivative of another author, the best practice is to clearly state so and give attribution to the original author, as well as specifying the new license. 

Example: This work, “CC Licenses in Practice” is a derivative of “Understanding CC Licenses” by Ben Owens from creativecommons.org used under CC BY-SA. “CC Licenses in Practice” is licensed under Joanna Schimizzi under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Complex Licenses

Some of these conditions can be combined to create more complex licenses 

CC-BY-NC-SA (Non Commercial Share Alike)

Requires attribution, noncommercial use, and the same license on adaptations. 

CC-BY-NC-ND (Non Commercial No Derivatives)

Requires attribution, noncommercial use, and the work cannot be adapted. 

Opening up your work for any use

Finally, some works are licensed under CC0, which is a license that waives any conditions for reuse, essentially placing the resource into the public domain. Educators can reuse these materials without attribution, but it is good practice to acknowledge the author anyway.