5.3.4: Creative Commons Copyright
- Page ID
- 265683
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Creative Commons Licensing
Creative Commons came out of legal challenges after the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (commonly also called the Mikey Mouse Protection Act due to it occurring right before Mickey Mouse entered the public domain) extended copyright terms from the life of the author plus 50 years to the life of the author plus 75 years; or 100 years after creation for works under corporate authorship. This legal action was seen by many to be an effort made to benefit large corporations. While legal challenges by Stanfard Law Profession Lawrence Lessig and web publisher Eric Eldred failed, the two went on to create Creative Commons licensing (Creative Commons).
Creative Commons (CC) is a type of license that works within copyright law so that creators can provide more customizable access and use of their works. It is vital to providing open access to information. Many different works on the internet are able to be accessed because they use a Creative Commons or a similar type of license. For example, YouTube allows creators to apply their own default license or a Creative Commons license. Without one of those agreements, they wouldn't be able to host and share other people's videos!
Many agreements allowing others to use your content are built into the user agreements when you create an account or upload content onto a social website. Creative Commons is notable because it is widely recognized and used. It serves as a simple and reliable way to identify what uses are allowed for a given work. Using Creative Commons (external link), you can do any combination of the following:
- Allow others to share your work publicly
- Allow others to create and edit new copies of your work
- Allows others to create altogether new creations using your work
- Prohibit others from altering your work
- Prohibit others from making money on your work
- Require that others give you credit for your work
- Require that people using your work, use the same type of Creative Commons license that you did
This video "What are Creative Commons Licenses" (external link) by the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library explains some of the basics of Creative Commons licenses.
Creative Commons includes the licenses most commonly used for making open educational resources (OERs). However, not every CC license includes all of the rights needed to create a truly open work. In order for a work to be open, users must be able to freely access, distribute, and edit that work. Creative Commons licenses including ND (nonderivative) or SA (share alike) license terms are not considered Open, because they greatly limit how you are allowed to edit or share the work.
Creative Commons is the most commonly used license for making resources open. "Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law."1 Creative Commons actually includes six different licenses that vary in the amount of permissions that they grant to other people for using and/or editing that resource.
In these different licenses CC refers to Creative Commons, which is then followed by other acronyms that have different meanings. These acronyms are SA (Share Alike), NC (Non Commercial), and ND (No Derivatives).
A derivative is something created using another work. This goes beyond simple quoting or paraphrasing some information from that work, but means you are taking the original work and transforming it into something else. It implies that you are using a substantial amount of the original work.CC Licenses
- CC BY allows any use but requires that you provide attribution (usually as a citation) if creating a new version of their work.
- CC BY-SA allows any use but requires that you provide attribution AND use the CC BY-SA license if creating a new version of their work.
- CC BY-NC allows any use to create a new (derivative) work so long as it is non-commercial, meaning that you will not make a profit off of it. You must also provide attribution to the original author.
- CC BY-NC-SA has the same allowances and conditions of CC BY-NC but also requires that any derivative works use the CC BY-NC-SA license.
- CC BY-ND allows people to read and copy the work but not to create any derivatives from it. It cannot be edited or transformed.
- CC BY-NC-ND is the same as CC-BY-ND except it also prevents any use that would generate a profit for people other than the original creator.1
There is also a special CC0 license, which means that the creator gives up any rights to the work. Anyone may do anything they like with it.
[Creative Commons Licenses (External Link) by Foter.com (External Link), Licensed CC BY-SA (External Link)].
Description: This image displays Creative Commons licenses from most to least free, with CC BY being the most free and CC BY-NC-ND being the least free. It is the least free because the Non-Commercial term is limiting and the No Derivatives term is very limiting. Non-Commercial means that people cannot use the work to make a profit. No Derivatives means that people cannot edit or alter the work in any way. The image also describes the allowances for each license, already described above under the Creative Commons Licensing heading.
Sources
- Creative Commons. (2019). About CC licenses. CreativeCommons.org. https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/(opens in new window)