A citizen's legal guide to using Creative Commons licenses

Guide to using Creative Commonsⁱ licenses

The Creative Commons license offers an excellent alternative to rigid, restrictive, one-size-fits-all copyright law. For many creators, default, "all rights reserved" copyright law[link] may not be the best choice, and we'll discuss why below.

Remember, if you create a work [blog post, podcast, film, song, book, etc.] and you don't choose an alternative to default copyright law such as a creative commons license or dedication to the public domain, you are stuck with default "protection." It can be a benefit and a curse of copyright law that it gives you essentially a monopoly of over your work. This means that you are the only one, outside of users' fair use[link] rights, who has the ability to copy, distribute, display, perform, and make derivatives. This may actually hurt your ability to communicate your work to the rest of the world.

Creative Commons essentially acknowledges that there are many alternatives on the spectrum between default copyright law, "all rights reserved," and dedicating your work to the public domain[link], where "no rights are reserved."

Creative Commons licenses offer a way to allow others to use your content in ways they otherwise couldn't under normal copyright law. The licenses are essentially a set of legal notices that permit others to make certain uses of a creative work. For instance, when you create a blog or podcast you may wish that that your creative work reach as many people as possible. Instead of simply making it available on your own website, you may be comfortable with others reposting and distributing your information so long as they attribute the work to you, link to your website, and don't exploit your work for profit. This is just one example of something Creative Commons licenses allow you to do.

First we'll look at the various uses that you can permit of your creative work, and the various conditions you can place on those uses. Then we'll look at the licenses themselves, which are simply various combinations of these permissions and conditions.