covering the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.
a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work.
Check the CC webpages below for more info...
The following describes each of the six main licenses offered when you choose to publish your work with a Creative Commons license.
They are listed starting with the most accommodating license type you can choose, and ending with the most restrictive license type you can choose.
Creators choose a set of conditions they wish to apply to their work.
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.
Share Alike
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
Noncommercial
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.
No Derivative Works
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
More information about these licenses and how you can share/protect your work:
Take a look back to see how CC licenses got started.
The content on this page has been adapted from UTL's Scholarly Communication guide.
General search engines for finding Creative Commons licensed work include Creative Commons Search and the Google Advance Search and clicking to search by usage rights. You can also use some of the links listed below to help narrow down your search to CC materials.
Remember to check the terms of use for each item you find, as some have restrictions (e.g. non-commercial, attribution) or terms may change without notice.
Unlike determining whether or not a work is in the public domain, it is a little easier to determine whether or not a work is covered under a Creative Commons license. You will usually see an image with the Creative Commons (CC) License conditions (see images to the left). You can click on the link for the license to see what you are allowed to do with the material. In some case (e.g. Flickr), look for wording such as "some rights reserved", then click on the link to see the CC license applied.
Films/Video
Images/Photographs
Music/Sound