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Copyright Basics

This guide offers basic copyright information for users of copyrighted materials.

Creative Commons

creative commons logo

Creative Commons provides free, standardized copyright licenses that allow you to give permission for others to share & use your creative work, under the conditions that you choose. The benefit to creating a Creative Commons license for your work is that when others discover your work they know exactly how they can use, share, or modify it.

"Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs." (Creative Commons, 2016). As the author, you still own the copyright.  Assigning a Creative Commons License to your work is easy. If you need help, contact your librarian, or link to in-depth information available on the CC website.

Types of CC Licenses

The links go directly to the full terms of each license.

icon for CC-BY license Attribution: CC-BY: lets others distribute, remix, adapt your work, as long as they credit you

icon for CC-BY-SA license Attribution-ShareAlike: CC-BY-SA: lets others distribute, adapt, remix your work as long as they credit you, and they use the same license

icon for CC-BY-NC license Attribution-NonCommercial: CC-BY-NC: lets others remix and adapt your work, they must credit you, and they can’t use it commercially

icon for CC-BY-NC-SA license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC-BY-NC-SA lets others remix and adapt your work, they must credit you, they can’t use commercially, and they must use the same license

icon for CC-BY-ND license Attribution-NoDerivs: CC-BY-ND: lets others reuse, but not change your work, and they must credit you

icon for CC-BY-NC-ND license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CC-BY-NC-ND: lets others use your work, they must credit you, they can’t change it, and can’t use it commercially

Explanatory images of Creative Commons Licenses are available at How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos by Foter (Wikimedia)

More Help with CC?

Use the Creative Commons License Chooser tool (beta version) to help you select the best license for your work. This site does not store any information.

For more information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ 


YouTube Video Explaining Creative Commons

Explanatory images of Creative Commons Licenses are available at How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos by Foter (Wikimedia)

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