The content on this page was originally created by CreativeCommons.org and has been edited and remixed under a creative commons 3.0 attribution license.
Remember, offering your work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any member of the public but only on certain conditions.
What conditions? You can find an overview of the Creative Commons licenses here. All of our licenses require that you give attribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
Attribution.
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.
Example: Christy publishes her photograph with an Attribution license, because she wants the world to use her pictures provided they give her credit. Ben finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. Ben puts Christy’s picture on his site, and clearly indicates Christy’s authorship.
What NMR says about it:
Note that ALL Creative Commons licenses require attribution. The legal code itself tells the user to include the name of the original author, the title of the work, and a link to the legal code in the license. That said, the code also requires that users “keep intact all copyright notices,” so we highly recommend that you specify exactly how you want others to attribute your work.
For example, here is what the NewMediaRights.org creative commons license says about attribution when using our content.
“You must attribute the work in the manner specified by New Media Rights (but not in any way that suggests that New Media Rights endorses you or your use of the work).
We specify exactly what the notice should contain when someone wants to use our content. The clearer you can make it the better.
Your other license choices are as follows
Noncommercial.
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only
Examples: Gus publishes his photograph on his website with a Noncommercial license. Julie prints Gus’ photograph. Julie is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Gus’s permission.
What NMR says about it:
If you don't want people to be able to make money off of your work without your explicit permission, then you likely want to require uses to be noncommercial on our creative commons license.
This is an effective way for artists and creators, especially those that are new or emerging, to get their creative work to a larger audience, because the creative work can be redistributed noncommercially on noncommercial blogs, podcasts, social media websites, and elsewhere. Your photograph, song, story, or other creative work can gain the attention of the public, but it can't be used for an advertisement, sold by a record label, or turned into a television sitcom without your permission and compensation.
No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
Example: Lionel licenses a recording of his song with a No Derivative Works license. Wendy would like to cut Lionel’s track and mix it with her own to produce an entirely new song. Wendy cannot do this without Lionel’s permission (unless his song amounts to fair use).
What NMR says about it:
Derivative works are creative works that build upon previous works. If you do not allow derivative works, then, as stated above, the only thing that can be distributed, copied, displayed, or performed is your exact original work(except for users' fair use rights).
This is a condition to carefully consider. For instance, if CreativeCommons.org has selected the “no derivative works” condition, NewMediaRights.org might arguably only be able to present the conditions we are discussing here exactly as they appeared on the Creative Commons website. Instead we have taken Creative Commons work and added our own to create an new, derivative work that combines Creative Commons' creative work with our own creative work.
Remember, allowing derivative works doesn't mean others can necessarily profit off the work without your explicit permission. Even if you allow others to create a derivative work, say recording and distributing their own version of your song, they cannot exploit the song commercially if you have chosen to require uses to be “noncommercial” as discussed above.
Allowing derivative works can often mean you've provided a great building block for grassroots culture. Therefore unless you want to
restrict all adaptations or modifications of the work and only allow distribution of identical copies, you should consider allowing derivative works.
Share
Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
Note: A license cannot feature both the Share Alike and No Derivative Works options. The Share Alike requirement applies only
to derivative works.
Example: Gus’s photo is online and licensed under the Noncommercial and Share Alike terms. Julie is an amateur collage artist, and she takes Gus’s photo and puts it into one of her collages. This Share Alike language requires Camille to make her collage available on a Noncommercial plus Share Alike license. It makes her offer her work back to the world on the same terms Gus gave her.
More examples are available on our examples page. Also note that every license carries with it a full set of other rights in addition to the allowances specifically made here.
What NMR says about it:
This condition requires that any use of your creative work carry the same licensing terms as you chose for your work. This can be helpful to ensure that others use your content with same spirit of sharing that you embraced.
That said, you don't need the “sharealike” condition to ensure that uses are noncommercial or don't allow modifications/adaptations (derivatives) as specified above. The “sharealike” requirement does place some additional restrictions on the user of the content, because they have no choice in the licensing scheme for a work that incorporates your work.
For example, let's say Rita composes and records a song, then shares it under a Creative Commons license that only requires attribution and contains the “sharealike” condition. This license does not restrict commercial use of Rita's song, so anyone can use her song commercially so long as they give her attribution. Now let's say Kevin is making a film, hears Rita's song, and wants to include it in his film. To use the song, Kevin has no choice but to make his film available under the same conditions, which allow anyone to commercially exploit his film so long as they give him attribution. If Rita did not choose the “sharealike” condition, Kevin could use the song in his film, respect Rita's wishes by attributing the work to her, and then offer the film under any conditions he chose, for instance a Creative Commons license requiring noncommercial use only.
Important for reusing, remixing “sharealike” content: Remember, even if your website uses a creative license, when you reuse or remix other creative commons material that has the “sharealike” requirement, you want to clearly label the Creative Commons licensed content you
are using with exactly the license that was specified by the copyright owner. This is because your site might not have the same license as the content you are using. For instance, you may allow people to use your content with attribution as the only condition, where as the content you are using may require attribution, noncommercial use, and have the “sharealike” requirement. In that case you should label the license terms for the content clearly.