These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative
Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide
basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link
to more detailed information.
- Other CC FAQs:
CC0 Public Domain Dedication
and
Public
Domain Mark
.
- “Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used
interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
- Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0
suite, but earlier
license versions
are mentioned where they differ.
- Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact
info@creativecommons.org.
Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for
informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not
cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer
if you have questions.
About CC
What is Creative Commons
and what do you do?
Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and
reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools.
Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by
offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to
make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis.
Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has
affiliates
all over the
world
who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise
awareness of our work.
Although Creative Commons is best known for its licenses, our work extends
beyond just providing copyright licenses. CC offers other legal and technical
tools that also facilitate sharing and discovery of creative works, such as
CC0
, a public domain
dedication for rights holders who wish to put their work into the public domain
before the expiration of copyright, and the
Public Domain
Mark
, a tool for marking a work that is in the worldwide public domain.
Creative Commons licenses and tools were designed specifically to work with the
web, which makes content that is offered under their terms easy to search for,
discover, and use.
For more information about CC, our
main website
contains in-depth
information about
the
organization
, its
staff and
board of directors
, its
history
, and its
supporters
. You can also
read
CC case studies
to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used
to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly
updated information about CC by visiting the
blog
.
Is Creative Commons against
copyright?
Absolutely not. CC has
responded to claims to
the contrary
. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the
existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and
other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while
reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the
public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to
consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights
under copyright law should not use CC licenses.
That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law,
and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in
the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our
statement in support of
copyright reform
.
What does “Some Rights Reserved”
mean?
Copyright
grants to
creators a bundle of exclusive rights over their creative works, which
generally include, at a minimum, the right to reproduce, distribute, display,
and make adaptations. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” is often used by owners
to indicate that they reserve all of the rights granted to them under the law.
When copyright expires, the work enters the
public domain
, and the
rights holder can no longer stop others from engaging in those activities under
copyright, with the exception of moral rights reserved to creators in some
jurisdictions. Creative Commons licenses offer creators a spectrum of choices
between retaining all rights and relinquishing all rights (public domain), an
approach we call “Some Rights Reserved.”
No. Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or
legal services. CC is similar to a self-help service that offers free,
form-based legal documents for others to use. These FAQ answers many of the
most common questions. There is also specialized information available on the
following pages:
While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and
other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and
should never be taken as legal advice.
If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools,
we recommend contacting the
Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction
. CC
affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in
their countries. We also offer a
list of lawyers and organizations
who have identified
themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing
issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and
does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.
Does
Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?
No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC
builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed
under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools
as well.
CC Search
is one tool
developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative
Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and
repositories.
The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions
associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who
apply CC licenses to their material can
download and apply those
buttons
to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When
the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the
human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).
You may
download high
resolution versions
of the Creative Commons logos and use them in
connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our
policies
. Among other things,
if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos
in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors.
CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of
Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies
unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example,
that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts
using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s
store
.
I love Creative Commons. How
can I help?
Please support CC by making a donation through our
support page
. Donations can be
handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting
our
store
.
CC always welcomes your feedback, which you can provide by emailing
.
You can also participate in CC’s
email discussion lists
and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.
If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical
expertise, please
join
our developer community
and help build the tools that build the
commons.
Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes
yourself. Follow our
blog
to
find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the
word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.
Why
does Creative Commons run an annual fundraising campaign? What is the money
used for and where does it go?
Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and
reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all
over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise
awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.
In order to…
- continue developing our licenses and public domain tools to make sure they
are legally and technically up-to-date around the world,
- help creators implement these tools on websites through best practices and
individual assistance,
- enable CC licensing on major content-sharing platforms,
- enhance CC-licensed resource search and discovery,
- advocate for CC licensing and open policies in
education
,
science
, and
culture
, and
- myriad other activities we’re forgetting to mention, such as all the
everyday boring but essential operations that go into running an
organization
…we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look
at our
Annual Report
.
Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and
organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the
public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make
our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services
CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available
on
Wikipedia
,
Flickr
,
SoundCloud
,
Vimeo
,
Europeana
,
MIT OpenCourseWare
,
PLOS
,
Al
Jazeera
, and
YouTube
—just to name a few.
Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and
running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a
nonprofit organization. The more people who
donate
to CC, the more
independent it will remain.
What are Creative Commons
licenses?
Creative Commons licenses
provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to
all creative material under
copyright
. Our licenses
allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and
legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses.
Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to
identify
which of the six
licenses
you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has
been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific
version.
All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the
creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY
license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to
reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of
three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits
commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing
of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations
of the material be released under the same license.
CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including
educational
resources
,
music
,
photographs
,
databases
,
government and public sector information
, and
many
other types of material
. The only categories of works for which CC does not
recommend its licenses are
computer
software
and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses
to works that are
no
longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain
.
Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you
mark them with the
Public
Domain Mark
.
How do CC licenses operate?
CC licenses are operative only when applied to material in which a
copyright
exists, and even then only when a particular use would otherwise not be
permitted by copyright. Note that the latest version of CC licenses also
applies to rights similar to copyright, such as
neighboring
rights
and
sui
generis database rights
.
Learn
more about the scope of the licenses.
This means that CC license terms and
conditions are
not
triggered by
uses
permitted under any applicable exceptions and limitations to copyright
, nor
do license terms and conditions apply to elements of a licensed work that are
in the public domain. This also means that CC licenses do not contractually
impose restrictions on uses of a work where there is no underlying copyright.
This feature (and others)
distinguish
CC licenses from some other open licenses
like the
ODbL
and
ODC-BY
, both of which are
intended to
impose
contractual conditions and restrictions
on the reuse of databases in
jurisdictions where there is no underlying copyright or sui generis database
right.
All CC licenses are non-exclusive:
creators
and owners can enter into additional, different licensing arrangements
for
the same material at any time (often referred to as “dual-licensing” or
“multi-licensing”). However,
CC
licenses are not revocable
once granted unless there has been a breach, and
even then the license is terminated only for the breaching licensee.
Please note that CC0 is not a license; it is a public domain dedication.
When CC0 is applied to a work, copyright no longer applies to the work in most
jurisdictions around the world. Therefore, references to dual licensing
arrangements like the one above are inapplicable to CC0.
There are also
videos and
comics
that offer visual descriptions of how CC licenses work.
Which
is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?
In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite.
These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are
recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been
improved over time on the
license versions
page
. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have
official translations becoming available after publication.
Do
Creative Commons licenses affect exceptions and limitations to copyright, such
as fair dealing and fair use?
No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights
under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as
fair use
or
fair dealing
. If your use
of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable
exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply
with its terms and conditions.
This is a
fundamental principle of CC licensing.
Who
gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?
Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds
copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.
Creative Commons offers licenses and tools to the public free of charge and
does not require that creators or other rights holders register with CC in
order to apply a CC license to a work. This means that
CC
does not have special knowledge of who uses the licenses
and for what
purposes, nor does CC have a way to contact creators beyond means generally
available to the public. CC has no authority to grant permission on behalf of
those persons, nor does CC manage those rights on behalf of others.
If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond
those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if
your intended use is permitted by the license, you should
contact
the rights holder
.
Are
Creative Commons licenses enforceable in a court of law?
Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world,
and have been
enforced in
court
in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never
been held unenforceable or invalid.
CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to
eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the
remaining provisions of the license.
What
happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my
knowledge or authorization?
CC
alerts
prospective licensors
they need to have all necessary rights before
applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked
your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that
person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to
contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you
or give you legal advice, but there are
lawyers
who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in
CC-related matters
.
What
are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC
offer “ported” licenses?
One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so
that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard
terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright
licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on
various
international
treaties governing copyright
, taking into account as many
jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has
been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international
enforceability.
For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported
versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually
correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on
the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances
in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and
language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended
to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be
necessary for 4.0.
CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite
explained on the
license versions
page
unless there are
particular
considerations you are aware of
that would require a ported license.
Can
I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they
use a CC BY-SA license?
Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are
licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph
into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact,
provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY.
Learn more
about the
licenses.
Can
governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?
Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments
and IGOs, and these institutions
frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable
material
. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to
maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational
purposes, and to enhance transparency.
Creative Commons licenses have
desirable features
that make
them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and
interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the
same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed
without legal barriers depending on the
particular
license applied
. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable,
allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as
Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works
published by governments and IGOs.
Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally
valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO
ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how
governments
and
IGOs
use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our
licenses, and
how
they operate in the IGO context.
Can
children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?
This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In
the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to
license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the
right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In
many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to
disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach
the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We
are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right
with respect to a CC license applied to a work.
What are
the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?
Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and
CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any
available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may
comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official
translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of
the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text.
These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the
Legal
Code Translation Policy
and with the oversight and detailed review of the
CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these
translations are
not
jurisdiction
ported versions
. You may find a list of all available translations
here
.
For versions 3.0 and earlier, official translations are not available. Some
unofficial translations were made for informational purposes only.
(Jurisdiction ported versions of version 3.0 and earlier were generally
published in the official language(s) of the appropriate jurisdiction. However,
the ported licenses are
not
equivalent
to the international licenses, and do not serve as substitutable
references for purposes of complying with the terms and conditions of the
licenses.)
What is a BY-SA Compatible
License?
A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative
Commons pursuant to the
ShareAlike
compatibility process
. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use
the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To
see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click
here
. Learn more
about ShareAlike compatibility
here
.
For Licensors
Choosing a license
What
things should I think about before I apply a Creative Commons license?
Applying a Creative Commons license to your material is a serious decision.
When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material
for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.
CC has identified
some
things that you should consider
before you apply a CC license, some of
which relate to your ability to apply a CC license at all. Here are some
highlights:
How should I decide which
license to choose?
If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of
resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has
developed a
flow
chart
that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for
your work. You can also
read case
studies
of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also
respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC
community
email discussion
lists
and discussion archives may be useful resources.
Finally, you may also want to
consult
with a lawyer
to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.
Why
should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?
The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You
should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order
to take advantage of the many improvements described on the
license
versions page
. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to
international use, and use in many different contexts, including
sharing data
.
What if CC
licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?
All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific
reason to use a
ported
license
, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses.
4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those
who wish to use the licenses in another language.
As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold
on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At
that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.
Should I
choose an international license or a ported license?
We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the
most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with
our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally
valid. There are currently no
ports
of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.
All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means
licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the
improvements made in the 4.0 license
suite
. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are
several reasons why the
international licenses
may be preferable for rights
holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an
organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international
license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are
essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The
neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and
organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that
transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the
ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for
your needs.
However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local
jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the
international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction
and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local
legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.
You can
use our
jurisdiction database
to compare international licenses and ports on these
issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or
forum selection clause.
Why should I use
the license chooser? What if I don’t?
Licensors are not required to use the
CC license chooser
or provide
any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license
to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take
advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our
machine-readable
code
enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software,
search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a
CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC
button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they
can cut and paste to provide attribution.
How do I
apply a Creative Commons license to my material?
For online material
: Select the license that is appropriate
for your material
from the CC
license chooser
and then follow the
instructions
to include the HTML code. The code will automatically generate a
license
button
and a statement that your material is licensed under a CC license.
If you are only licensing part of a work (for example, if you have created a
video under a CC license but are using a song under a different license), be
sure to clearly
mark
which parts are under the CC license and which parts are not. The HTML code
will also include metadata, which allows the material to be discovered via
Creative Commons-enabled search
engines
.
For offline material
: Identify which license you wish to
apply to your work and either (a)
mark
your work
with a statement such as, “This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons [insert description] License. To view a copy of the license,
visit [insert url]”; or (b) insert the applicable
license
buttons
with the same statement and URL link.
For third-party platforms
: Many
media
platforms
like
Flickr
,
YouTube
, and
SoundCloud
have built-in Creative Commons
capabilities, letting users mark their material with a CC license through their
account settings. The benefit of using this functionality is that it allows
other people to find your content when
searching on those platforms for
CC-licensed material
. If the platform where you’re uploading your content
does not support CC licensing, you can still identify your content as
CC-licensed in the text description of your content.
Legally, these three options are the same. The only difference between
applying a CC license offline rather than online is that marking a work online
with metadata will ensure that users will be able to find it through CC-enabled
search engines.
CC offers resources on the
best
practices for marking your material
and on
how
to mark material in different media (.pdf)
.
Do I
need to register with Creative Commons before I obtain a license?
No. CC offers its licenses, code, and tools to the public free of charge,
without obligation. You do not need to register with Creative Commons to apply
a CC license to your material; it is legally valid as soon as you apply it to
any material you have the legal right to license.
CC does not require or provide any means for creators or other rights
holders to register use of a CC license,
nor
does CC maintain a database of works
distributed under Creative Commons
licenses. CC also does not require registration of the work with a national
copyright agency.
What do the
terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?
Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and
novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s
copyright
in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those
rights in
any
medium or format
. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and
covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the
expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license
applied
to a digitized copy
of a novel grants the public permission under copyright
to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions
(though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).
Can I apply a
Creative Commons license to software?
We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software. Instead,
we strongly encourage you to use one of the very good software licenses which
are already available. We recommend considering
licenses
listed as free
by the
Free Software
Foundation
and
listed as “open
source”
by the
Open Source
Initiative
.
Unlike software-specific licenses, CC licenses do not contain specific terms
about the distribution of source code, which is often important to ensuring the
free reuse and modifiability of software. Many software licenses also address
patent rights, which are important to software but may not be applicable to
other copyrightable works. Additionally, our licenses are currently not
compatible with the major software licenses, so it would be difficult to
integrate CC-licensed work with other free software. Existing software licenses
were designed specifically for use with software and offer a similar set of
rights to the Creative Commons licenses.
Version 4.0 of CC’s Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) license is
one-way compatible
with the
GNU General Public
License version 3.0
(GPLv3). This compatibility mechanism is designed for
situations in which content is integrated into software code in a way that
makes it difficult or impossible to distinguish the two. There are special
considerations required before using this compatibility mechanism. Read more
about it
here
.
Also, the CC0 Public Domain Dedication
is
GPL-compatible
and acceptable for software. For details,
see
the relevant CC0 FAQ entry
.
While we recommend against using a CC license on software itself, CC
licenses may be used for software documentation, as well as for separate
artistic elements such as game art or music.
Can I apply a
Creative Commons license to databases?
Yes. CC licenses
can
be used on databases
. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable
sui
generis database rights
are licensed under the same license conditions as
copyright. Many
governments
and others use CC licenses
for data and databases.
For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and
databases, visit our detailed
Data FAQ
.
Could I use a
CC license to share my logo or trademark?
Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or
trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in
addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses
an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and
trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to
indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse
or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your
inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish
those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even
result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See
below
for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.
There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while
preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants
permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative.
Mozilla
,
Wikimedia
, and
Creative Commons
have each
published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and
preserving trademark rights.
May
I apply a Creative Commons license to a work in the public domain?
CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide
public
domain
. All CC licenses are clear that they
do
not have the effect
of placing restrictions on material that would
otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain
by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the
public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights,
use CC’s legally robust
public
domain dedication
. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you
should mark it with CC’s
Public
Domain Mark
.
Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the
copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S.
government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United
States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC
license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions
enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not
be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.
Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create
that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases,
or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of
these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are
unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to
mark
the public domain material
, so that others know they are also free to use
this material without legal restriction.
If
I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a
CC license to my photo?
That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your
photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by
jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative
choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of
creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain
work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there
is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).
In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract
copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license
conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent
some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However,
they would not have to comply with the license conditions if
they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain
. This is
because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you
contributed, not to the underlying work.
May
I apply a CC license to my work if it incorporates material used under fair use
or another exception or limitation to copyright?
Yes, but it is important to prominently mark any third party material you
incorporate into your work so reusers do not think the CC license applies to
that material. The CC license only applies to the rights you have in the work.
For example, if your CC-licensed slide deck includes a Flickr image you are
using pursuant to fair use, make sure to identify that image as not being
subject to the CC license. For more information about incorporating work owned
by others, see our page about
marking third party content
. Read more considerations for
licensors
here
.
Rights other than copyright
Can I use
CC licenses to license rights other than copyright?
CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses
also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including
performance, broadcast,
and sound recording rights
, as well as
sui generis
database rights
. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of
those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note
that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should
refer to our
license versions page
for details.
How
do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?
As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve
moral rights
to the extent
they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways
contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you
apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any
moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to
exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral
rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works
internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of
our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must
be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral
rights.
Earlier versions
of the license are also intended to
minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the
language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier
versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language
designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction.
If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the
moral rights language in the particular license.
You can also
compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this
provision
, or
browse the license versions page
to compare the treatment
of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.
Can
I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also
licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?
Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a
trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the
trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses.
However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the
trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that
require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative
Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or
other branding materials give notice to licensees expressly disclaiming
application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright
notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.
The following is an example notice:
“
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat
under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
(”CC-BY-SA”). . . . Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo,
JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red
Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. For guidelines
on the permitted uses of the Fedora trademarks, refer to
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Trademark_guidelines
.
”
How
are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC
license?
When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material,
you also agree to waive or not assert any
publicity, privacy, or personality rights
that you hold in
the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to
exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of
yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed
from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied
but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you
should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.
If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or
personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your
application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant
uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are
licensing, we recommend
marking the material
to give notice to reusers.
What
is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? And what role
do CC licenses play to address plagiarism?
Plagiarism involves the copying of someone else’s creation or ideas and
passing them off as one’s own without attribution to the original author.
Plagiarism is generally a matter of ethics and is dealt with primarily through
social norms, ethics policies, academic standards, and codes of conduct.
Plagiarism will usually give rise to professional or academic sanctions, and
will not necessarily be the subject of legal proceedings.
Copyright infringement is a matter of law and will give rise to legal
sanctions. An action may be considered plagiarism but not copyright
infringement and vice versa, or both at the same time. For example, copying
part of a text and not crediting the author could be considered plagiarism in
an academic context, but not copyright infringement if the reproduction is
allowed under an exception or if the text is in the public domain (subject to
the application of moral rights). Conversely, copying part of a text without
authorization and without benefiting from an exception but with correctly
crediting the author could be copyright infringement but not plagiarism.
Creative Commons licenses are not designed to address issues that fall
outside the scope of copyright law, although, when the licenses were first
developed, Creative Commons expected that the
attribution
requirement would contribute to reducing instances of plagiarism. Regardless,
activities such as plagiarism are not directly governed by the application of
CC licenses. That said, the attribution requirement and the obligation to
indicate modifications made to a work can alleviate authors’ concerns over
plagiarism and serve to assist in the enforcement of attribution and citation
in the scholarly and academic contexts.
For more information, read our blog post
Why
Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is
Misguided
.
Business models
Can
I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve
more rights in high-resolution copies?
You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one
set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but
only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This
is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution
copies are the
same work under applicable copyright law
, permission under
a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a
copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to
the low-resolution copy.
Note that, although CC
strongly discourages the practice
, CC cannot prevent
licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on
uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be
contractually restricted
from using the high-resolution
copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the
low-resolution copy.
Can
I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?
Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their
collecting society
before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are
members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for
uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies
allow.
Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland,
France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an
assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them,
so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France
it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators
in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to
license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own
the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is
working with several collecting societies
and running
pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some
circumstances.
If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC
licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the
option of Creative Commons licensing.
Can
I still make money from a work I make available under a Creative Commons
license?
Yes. One of our goals is to encourage creators and rights holders to
experiment with new ways to promote and market their work. There are several
possible ways of doing this.
CC’s
NonCommercial (NC)
licenses allow rights holders to
maximize distribution while maintaining control of the commercialization of
their works. If you want to reserve the right to commercialize your work, you
may do this by choosing a license with the NC condition. If someone else wants
to use your work commercially and you have applied an NC license to your work,
they must first get your permission. As the rights holder, you may still sell
your own work commercially.
You may also use funding models that do not depend on using an NC license.
For example, many artists and creators use crowdfunding to fund their work
before releasing it under a less restrictive license. Others use a “freemium”
model where the basic content is free, but extras such as a physical printed
version or special access to a members-only website are for paying customers
only.
For more information and ideas,
The
Power of Open
presents case studies of artists, businesspeople, and
organizations who use CC.
Alterations and additions to
the license
Can I
insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?
No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided
depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is
redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the
creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing
so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and
reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that
overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply
disregarded.
Can I change the license
terms or conditions?
Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons
license, you
must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a
“Creative Commons” or “CC” license
, nor can you use the
Creative Commons logos, buttons, or
other trademarks
in connection with the modified license or your materials.
Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from
waiving
existing conditions or granting additional permissions
than those in the
licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the
CC+
protocol
to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC
license deed.
CC does not assert copyright in the text of its licenses, so you are
permitted to modify the text as long as you do not use the CC marks to describe
it. However, we do not recommend this. We also advise against
modifying our licenses
through indirect means, such as in
your terms of service. A modified license very likely will not be compatible
with the same CC license (unmodified) applied to other material. This would
prevent licensees from using, combining, or remixing content under your
customized license with other content under the same or compatible CC
licenses.
Modifying licenses creates friction that confuses users and undermines the
key benefits of public, standardized licenses. Central to our licenses is the
grant of a standard set of permissions in advance, without requiring users to
ask for permission or seek clarification before using the work. This encourages
sharing and facilitates reuse, since everyone knows what to expect and the
burden of negotiating permissions on a case by case basis is eliminated.
Can I waive license terms or
conditions?
Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions.
Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or
conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same
license. Our
CC+ protocol
provides a mechanism for facilitating that
grant or waiver.
Can
I enter into separate or supplemental agreements with users of my work?
Yes. CC licenses are nonexclusive. Licensors always have the option of
entering into separate arrangements for the sharing of their material in
addition to applying a CC license. However, those different arrangements are
not “CC” or “Creative Commons” licenses.
Separate agreements:
You may offer the licensed material
under other licenses in addition to the CC license (a practice commonly
referred to as “dual licensing”). For example, you may wish to license a video
game soundtrack under both a CC license and the GPL, so that it may be used
under either set of terms. A reuser may then choose which set of terms to
comply with. Or, for example, you may offer your material to the public under a
NonCommercial license, but offer commercial permissions to fee-paying
customers.
Supplemental agreements:
Problems arise when licensors
design those terms or arrangements to serve not as separate, alternative
licensing arrangements but as supplemental terms
having the
effect of changing the standard terms within the CC license
. While you may
offer separate terms and conditions to other parties, you should not do so in
such a way that would neutralize terms of the CC license.
Except in the limited situation where
more
permissions are being granted or license conditions are waived
, if the
additional arrangement modifies or conflicts with the CC license terms, then
the resulting licensing arrangement is no longer a CC licensing arrangement. To
avoid confusing those who may mistakenly believe the work is licensed under
standard CC terms, we must insist that in these instances licensors not use our
trademarks, names, and logos
in connection with their custom licensing arrangement.
It should be noted that any agreements you make with other parties only have
an effect on the other parties to that agreement, and do not apply to anyone
else receiving the licensed material. For example, if there are terms of use
that apply to visitors to your website on which you host CC-licensed material,
your terms of use may apply to visitors to that website, but not to anyone who
receives copies of the CC-licensed material elsewhere. Even for the visitors to
your website, any separate terms and conditions do not become part of the
license—they remain a separate contractual agreement, and violation of this
agreement does not constitute copyright infringement.
After licensing
What
happens if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and someone
misuses them?
Please see our guide on
What to do if Your
CC-Licensed Work is Misused
.
What
can I do if I offer my material under a Creative Commons license and I do not
like the way someone uses it?
If someone has made an adaptation of your CC-licensed work in a way that you
no longer wish to be associated with, the adapter must comply with a request
that your name be removed. (See Section 3(a)(3) of CC 4.0 legal codes.)
If you believe that someone is using your work in a way that is violating
the license terms——for example, not giving correct credit, or using an NC work
commercially, we have a guide on license enforcement here:
What to do if Your
CC-Licensed Work is Misused
.
Do I
have to provide my name? Can I ask that my name be removed?
As a licensor, you may choose to receive under any name that you wish, such
as a pseudonym or pen name, or you may choose not to be credited by name at
all, and to publish anonymously. You do not have to be credited under your
legal name. Most jurisdictions permit this, but you should check to be sure
this is valid in your jurisdiction.
If someone has made an adaptation of your CC-licensed work in a way that you
no longer wish to be associated with, the adapter must comply with a request
that your name be removed. (See Section 3(a)(3) of CC 4.0 legal codes.)
What
do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as
DRM) on my CC-licensed material?
The use of
any
effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or
“DRM”)
by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights
is prohibited.
Not all kinds of encryption or
access limitations
are prohibited by the licenses. For
example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s
public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise,
limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a
username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the
content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the
recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including
the right to redistribute it further.
If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed
material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM
that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you
have chosen to grant this permission separately.
No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media
or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is
true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC
license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the
same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s
copyright.
What if I change my
mind about using a CC license?
CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC
license, licensees may continue using it according to the license terms for the
duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may
stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access
to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license
terms. While you cannot revoke the license, CC licenses do provide a
mechanism
for licensors to ask that others using their
material remove the attribution information. You should
think
carefully before choosing a Creative Commons license
.
For Licensees
Before using CC-licensed
material
What
should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons
license?
CC offers
six core
licenses
, each of which grants a different set of permissions. Before you
use CC-licensed material,
you should review the terms
of the particular license
to be sure your anticipated use is permitted. If
you wish to use the work in a manner that is not permitted by the license, you
should contact the rights holder (often the creator) to get permission first,
or look for an alternative work that is licensed in a way that permits your
anticipated use. Note that if you use material in a way that is not permitted
by the applicable license and your use is not otherwise permitted by an
applicable copyright exception or limitation, the license is
automatically terminated
and you may be liable for
copyright infringement, even if you are eligible to have your rights reinstated
later.
Before using material offered under a Creative Commons license, you should
know that
CC licenses only grant permissions needed under copyright and
similar rights
, and there may be additional rights you need to use it as
intended. You should also understand that licensors do not offer warranties or
guarantees about the material they are licensing unless expressly indicated
otherwise. All materials are licensed “AS IS” and a disclaimer of warranties
applies unless expressly provided otherwise. If you want to ask for a warranty
or guarantee about rights to use the material, you should talk with the
licensor before using it.
Does
a Creative Commons license give me all the rights I need to use the work?
It depends. CC licenses do not license rights other than copyright and
similar rights
(which include
sui generis
database rights
in version 4.0). For example, they do not license trademark
or patent rights, or the
publicity, personality, and privacy rights
of third
parties. However, licensors agree to waive or not assert any
moral rights
, publicity
rights, personality rights, or privacy rights they themselves hold, to the
limited extent necessary to allow exercise of the licensed rights. Any rights
outside of the scope of the license may require clearance (i.e., permission) in
order to use the work as you would like.
Additionally, creative works sometimes incorporate works owned by others
(known as “third party content”), often used pursuant to a CC license or under
an exception or limitation to copyright such as fair use in the U.S. You should
make sure you have permission to use any third party content contained in the
work you want to use, or that your use is otherwise allowed under the laws of
your jurisdiction, particularly in cases such as fair use where your right to
use the content depends on the particular context in which you plan to use
it.
All CC licenses contain a disclaimer of warranties, meaning that the
licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including whether she
owns the copyright, has received permission to include third-party content
within her work, or secured other rights such as through the use of model
releases if a person’s image is used in the work. You
may wish to obtain legal advice
before using CC-licensed
material if you are not sure whether you have all the rights you need.
What
if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed
database?
In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights
apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific
considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights
are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the
license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related
considerations is available in the
Data
FAQ
.
Where can I find
material offered under a CC license?
If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license,
CC Search
is a good starting
point. There is also a
directory
of organizations and individuals who use CC
licenses. Some media sites, such as
Flickr
, have search filters for material
licensed using CC’s licenses.
Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC
license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.
Are Creative Commons
works really free to use?
Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some
licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by
publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for
downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a
copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the
license without paying licensing fees.
(If you wish to make uses that are not permitted by the license—for example,
making a
commercial use
of an NC-licensed photo—the licensor may
charge for those additional rights.)
What
should I know about differences between the international licenses and the
ported licenses?
As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s
legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using
material that is licensed using a
ported license
with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting
process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of
different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been
made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material.
You can find more information about the ported licenses in the
Jurisdiction Database
.
There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be
few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international
licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your
preferred language.
However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small
differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they
have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported
licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the
licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses
contain forum selection clauses.
General license compliance
What
happens if I want to use the material in a way that is not permitted by the
license?
Contact the rights holders to ask for permission. Otherwise,
unless an exception or limitation to copyright applies
,
your use of the material may violate the Creative Commons license. If you
violate the terms of the license, your rights to use the material will be
automatically terminated
, and you may be liable for
copyright infringement.
Do
I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the
exceptions?
You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would
otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not
require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception
or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the
public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with
its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small
enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you
do not need to comply with its terms.
However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which
individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together
make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license
terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across
several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must
comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a
substantial enough portion of the work to require this.
Attribution
How
do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?
All CC licenses require users to attribute the creator of licensed material,
unless the creator has
waived that requirement
, not supplied a name, or
asked that her name be removed
. Additionally, you must
retain a copyright notice, a link to the license (or to the deed), a license
notice, a notice about the disclaimer of warranties, and a URI if reasonable.
For versions prior to 4.0, you must also provide the title of the work. (Though
it is not a requirement in 4.0, it is still recommended if one is
supplied.)
You must also indicate if you have
modified the work
—for example, if you have taken an
excerpt, or cropped a photo. (For versions prior to 4.0, this is only required
if you have created an adaptation by contributing your own creative material,
but it is recommended even when not required.) It is not necessary to note
trivial alterations, such as correcting a typo or changing a font size.
Finally, you must retain an indication of previous modifications to the
work.
CC licenses have a flexible attribution requirement, so there is not
necessarily one correct way to provide attribution. The proper method for
giving credit will depend on the medium and means you are using, and may be
implemented in any reasonable manner. Additionally, you may satisfy the
attribution requirement by providing a link to a place where the attribution
information may be found.
While the attribution requirements in the license are the minimum
requirement, we always recommend that you
follow the best practices
for the kind of use you are
making. For example, if you are using scientific data marked with CC0, you are
not required to give attribution at all, but we recommend that you give the
same credit you would give to any other source—not because the license requires
it, but because that is the standard for letting others know the source of the
data.
The CC website offers some
best practices
to help you attribute properly, and the
CC Australia
team has developed a
helpful
guide to attributing CC-licensed material (.pdf)
in different formats. Note
that the attribution and marking requirements vary slightly among license
versions. See
here for a chart comparing the specific requirements
.
Do I
need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?
Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or
connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission.
Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or
your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not
to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of
a work
requests that you remove the identifying credit
, you must
do so to the extent practical.
Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more
pre-existing works, you may need to
give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s)
,
in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.
Do
I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?
You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by
any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using
the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it
available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if
you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company
or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement.
Learn
more
about when compliance with the license is not
required.
Using licensed material
Does my
use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?
CC’s NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are “primarily intended
for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” This is
intended to capture the intention of the NC-using community without placing
detailed restrictions that are either too broad or too narrow. Please note that
CC’s definition does not turn on the type of user: if you are a nonprofit or
charitable organization, your use of an NC-licensed work could still run afoul
of the NC restriction, and if you are a for-profit entity, your use of an
NC-licensed work does not necessarily mean you have violated the term. Whether
a use is commercial will depend on the specifics of the situation and the
intentions of the user.
In CC’s experience, it is usually relatively easy to determine whether a use
is permitted, and known conflicts are relatively few considering the popularity
of the NC licenses. However, there will always be uses that are challenging to
categorize as commercial or noncommercial. CC cannot advise you on what is and
is not commercial use. If you are unsure, you should either contact the rights
holder for clarification, or search for works that permit commercial uses.
CC has a
brief guide
to interpretation of the NC license that goes
into more detail about the meaning of the NC license and some key points to pay
attention to. Additionally, in 2008,
Creative Commons published results
from a survey on
meanings of commercial and noncommercial use generally. Note that the results
of the study are not intended to serve as CC’s official interpretation of what
is and is not commercial use under our licenses, and the results should not be
relied upon as such.
Yes. When any of the six CC licenses is applied to material, licensees are
granted permission to use the material as the license allows, whatever the
media or format chosen by the user when it is used or distributed further. This
is true even in our NoDerivatives licenses. This is one of a very few default
rules established in our licenses, to harmonize what may be different outcomes
depending on where CC-licensed material is reused and what jurisdiction’s
copyright law applies.
This means, for example, that even if a creator distributes a work in
digital format, you have permission to print and share a hard copy of the same
work.
How
do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same
work?
As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law.
Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive
or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from
another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the
relevant jurisdiction.
Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work
into a different format
is
unlikely to create a separate, new work
. Consequently, digitally enhancing
or changing the format of a work
absent some originality
, such as
expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create
a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not
non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a
CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a
different resolution.
Can
I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs
restriction?
The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating
adaptations. What constitutes an
adaptation
, otherwise known
as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant
jurisdiction.
Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger
work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon
and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no
derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when
the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another
larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright
holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant
the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a
minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an
ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other
conditions of the license are met.
There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are
combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the
original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song
was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an
adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and
even if that portion was used as-is.
Can
I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed
material?
No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not
place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes
using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s
ability to exercise the licensed rights.
A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries
penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO
Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international
agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various
jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.
For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a
music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may
not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you
upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply
DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that
applies DRM, you have not violated the license.
Note that merely converting material into a different format that is
difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate
the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.
Can I
share CC-licensed material on password-protected sites?
Yes. This is not considered to be a prohibited measure, so long as the
protection is merely limiting who may access the content, and does not restrict
the authorized recipients from exercising the licensed rights. For example, you
may post material under any CC license on a site restricted to members of a
certain school, or to paying customers, but
you may not place effective technological measures (including
DRM) on the files
that prevents them from sharing the material
elsewhere.
(Note that charging for access may not be permitted with NC-licensed
material; however, it is not disallowed by the restriction on ETMs.)
Can I share
CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?
Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any
means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading
is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the
NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not
permitted.
Do
I need to worry about website terms of service when I share CC-licensed content
on social media platforms?
It is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with the terms and
conditions that apply to any service you are using. Generally speaking, most
social media platforms allow users to keep the copyright they have in their
content and ask users to grant them a copyright license to use that content for
purposes of providing their service. In some cases, platforms may also ask for
a license to use your content in advertising and other promotions of their
service. Creative Commons licenses do not allow sublicensing, which means you
cannot grant a license to a platform with respect to the rights in any
CC-licensed content you do not own. For example, if you share on Facebook a
CC-licensed image you downloaded from Flickr, you cannot grant Facebook any
rights to that image under copyright. However, it is unusual for social media
platforms to require you to own or control the copyright on all content you
share on their sites. Instead, they often simply require that you have the
rights to post it. As with content in the public domain or copyrighted content
you are using under fair use or some other exception or limitation to
copyright, when you share third party CC-licensed content on a platform, you
aren’t granting that platform any rights to the content under copyright. When
sharing CC-licensed content, always remember to provide proper attribution and
otherwise comply with the relevant license conditions.
Don’t forget that a CC license only speaks to copyright, and there may be
other rights (for example, privacy rights) that are relevant when sharing on
social media.
Additional restrictions
on licensed material
What
if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological
measures (such as DRM)?
If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with
effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM),
you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By
releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any
rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological
measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not
explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution
channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to
prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do
so.
Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some
jurisdictions.
What
if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?
It is possible that CC-licensed material will appear on platforms that
impose terms in addition to the copyright license (though
Creative Commons strongly discourages restrictions that
interfere with exercise of the licensed rights
). These additional terms do
not form part of the license for the work and may not be applicable to
distributions of the work outside of the platform. For example, if you download
CC-licensed material from a site that does not permit downloading, you may be
breaking the terms of use of the site, but you are not infringing the CC
license. See our guide to
Modifying the CC licenses
for more guidance and
information.
Combining and adapting CC
material
When is my use considered an
adaptation?
Whether a modification of licensed material is considered an
adaptation
for the purpose
of CC licenses depends primarily on the applicable copyright law. Copyright law
reserves to an original creator the right to create adaptations of the original
work. CC licenses that allow for adaptations to be shared—all except BY-ND and
BY-NC-ND—grant permission to others to create and redistribute adaptations when
doing so would otherwise constitute a violation of applicable copyright law.
Generally, a modification rises to the level of an adaptation under copyright
law when the modified work is based on the prior work but manifests sufficient
new creativity to be copyrightable, such as a translation of a novel from one
language to another, or the creation of a screenplay based on a novel.
Under CC licenses, synching music in timed relation with a moving image is
always considered an adaptation, whether or not it would be considered so under
applicable law. Also, under version 4.0, certain uses of databases restricted
by sui generis database rights also constitute adaptations (called “Adapted
Material” in the 4.0 licenses), whether or not they would be considered
adaptations under copyright law. For more details about adaptations in the
database context, see the
Data FAQ
.
Note that all CC licenses allow the user to exercise the rights permitted
under the license
in any format or medium
. Those changes are not considered
adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise. For example, you
may redistribute a book that uses the CC
BY-NC-ND
license
in print form when it was originally distributed online, even if you have had
to make formatting changes to do so, as long as you do so in compliance with
the other terms of the license.
Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term
“remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something
that constitutes an
adaptation under copyright law
.
Can
I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work?
It depends. The first question to ask is whether doing so constitutes an
adaptation.
If the combination does
not
create an adaptation, then you may combine any
CC-licensed content so long as you provide attribution and comply with the
NonCommercial restriction if it applies. If you want to combine material in a
way that results in the creation of an adaptation (i.e. a “remix”), then you
must pay attention to the particular license that applies to the content you
want to combine.
The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing except for private use
(the pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by
exceptions and limitations to copyright). All the other CC licenses allow
remixes, but may impose limitations or conditions on how the remix may be used.
For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike
license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the
remix is licensed under the same license or
one that CC has named as
compatible
, and you must
properly credit all of the sources
with the
required attribution
and license information. Similarly,
if you want to use a remix for
commercial purposes
, you cannot incorporate material
released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.
The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the
chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is
a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can
be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed
unless an exception or limitation applies. See
below for details on how remixes may be licensed
.
If
I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC
license(s) can I use?
If you make
adaptations
of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”),
the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even
once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your
“adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material.
Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the
original and your adapter’s license.
When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your
adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license
applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because
they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license.
For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license
should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more
details.
- BY-SA and BY-NC-SA material
In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be
the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses
after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later
version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the
license versions page
for details.) If you wish to adapt
material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC
license, you should visit the
Compatibility page
to
see which options are allowed.
- BY-ND and BY-NC-ND material
The BY-ND and BY-NC-ND licenses do not permit distribution of adaptations
(also known as remixes or derivative works), and prohibits the creation of
adaptations under the pre-4.0 versions of those licenses. Since you may not
share remixes of these materials at all, there is no compatibility with other
licenses. (Note that the ND licenses do allow you to reproduce the material in
unmodified form together with other material in a collection, as indicated in
the next FAQ.)
The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s
license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified
in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation
under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is
green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is
yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license.
If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving
multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of
their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark
gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s
license.
Adapter’s license chart
|
Adapter’s license
|
BY
|
BY-NC
|
BY-NC-ND
|
BY-NC-SA
|
BY-ND
|
BY-SA
|
PD
|
Status of original work
|
PD
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY-NC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY-NC-ND
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY-NC-SA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY-ND
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BY-SA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abbreviation Key
If
I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which
license(s) may I choose for the collection?
All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow
licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies,
encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection,
however this does not change the license applicable to the original
material.
When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere
to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For
example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses
cannot be used
commercially
. The table below indicates what type of
CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial
and noncommercial uses.
Original Work
|
Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND)
|
NonCommercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
|
PD
|
|
|
BY
|
|
|
BY-NC
|
|
|
BY-NC-ND
|
|
|
BY-NC-SA
|
|
|
BY-ND
|
|
|
BY-SA
|
|
|
License termination
When do Creative Commons
licenses expire?
Creative Commons licenses expire when the underlying copyright and similar
rights expire.
Note that the relevant rights may expire at different times. For example,
you may have a CC-licensed song where the rights in the musical arrangement
expire before the rights in the lyrics. In this case, when the copyright in the
music expires, you may use it
without being required to comply with the conditions of the CC
license
; however, you must still comply with the license if you use the
lyrics.
What
happens if the author decides to revoke the CC license to material I am
using?
The CC licenses are irrevocable. This means that once you receive material
under a CC license, you will always have the right to use it under those
license terms, even if the licensor changes his or her mind and stops
distributing under the CC license terms. Of course, you may choose to respect
the licensor’s wishes and stop using the work.
How
can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do
I get them back?
All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license
conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the
material.
In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically
reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the
violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told
you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic
reinstatement.
If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to
automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the
licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the
material to get a new license.
Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for
the period where you were not in compliance with the license.
Technical Questions
How
do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?
The Creative Commons licenses have
three layers
, as does the
CC0 public domain dedication
:
the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the
machine-readable metadata. The
Public Domain
Mark
is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the
human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.
When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is
highly recommended that a
CC button
, text, or
other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking.
For our licenses, people generally use the
CC license chooser
to generate
HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is
published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate
chooser
. Many platforms
and web services such as
Flickr
and
Drupal
support CC licensing directly,
allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks
the work for you.
CC has published some best practices for
marking
your CC-licensed material, and recommends:
- Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the
work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
- Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license,
especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
- Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link
to the legal code).
- Embedding
machine-readable
metadata in the code of the license
indicator or code of the licensed page.
See the
marking
page for more details.
What
does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?
Creative Commons has
specified CC REL
as a way to associate machine-readable
licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.
Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a
machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was
also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for
example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).
Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates
a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and
services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described
by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as
Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under
specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create
copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY
condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or
button
from a page with
license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license
deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original
material.
All HTML provided by the
CC
license chooser
is automatically annotated with
metadata
in
RDFa
format.
What is RDFa?
RDFa
is a method for embedding structured data in a web
page. For more information about RDFa, see the following resources:
What is CC
REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?
Creative Commons Rights
Expression Language
(CC REL) renders information about licenses and works
machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative
Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the
works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and finding
properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark
your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides
HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL
on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to
enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and
paste HTML that includes work attribution.
For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this
paper
.
What does it
mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?
Some search engines (like
Google
) allow people to
filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search
results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you
are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos
that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally
find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search
engine. You can also use
CC
Search
, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those
content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.
Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that
the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.
How
do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr
does?
Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your
site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the
CC wiki
. The
Partner Interface
is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license
versions and translations. However, there is also an
API
available if you want more
control.
How
can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the
Firefox browser?
Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions
of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular
sites. Please take a look at the
Firefox article on
the CC wiki
for an explanation of how to change these features.
If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo
in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open
the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers.
If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search
engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on
the pull down menu.
Is
Creative Commons involved in digital rights management (DRM)?
No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC
provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights
they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights
management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent
people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.
CC licenses contain language prohibiting licensees from the use of effective
technological measures (including DRM) to prevent access to licensed material:
”You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions
on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if
doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any such recipient.”
While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their
own materials, the licensor provides a
limited
permission to circumvent these measures
: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees
not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical
modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical
modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note
that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors
themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs
if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you
permission to circumvent it.
Legal Background
What is copyright and why
does it matter?
Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of
authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works
automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies
without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet,
even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As
content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law
is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can
lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some
understanding of copyright law.
What is the public domain?
The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that
are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part
of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired,
because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like
CC0
, or because the work did
not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.
Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a
particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain”
of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example,
U.S. government works
are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law
, but might
be restricted by copyright in other countries.
The
Public Domain Manifesto
,
the
University
Libraries
page, and the
CC0 FAQs
all contain
additional information about the public domain.
What do I need to do to get a
copyright?
Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any
formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you
put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).
In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national
agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more
information, please consult the
Berne
Convention
or
your
jurisdiction’s copyright law
.
Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be
protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is
yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.
What is an adaptation?
An adaptation is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. What
constitutes an adaptation depends on applicable law, however translating a work
from one language to another or creating a film version of a novel are
generally considered adaptations.
In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws
require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the
pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality,
and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law
jurisdictions (such as
Germany
and
France
)
tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality.
Common law jurisdictions (such as the
U.S.
or
Canada
), on the other
hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal
level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach
originality completely differently. For example,
Brazil’s
copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list
of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.”
Consult
your
jurisdiction’s copyright law
for more information.
What are moral rights?
Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral
rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their
creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a
work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right
of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or
pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right
of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation
represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion
or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or
reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.
The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a
licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions,
these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on
how CC licenses may affect your moral rights
.
What are neighboring rights?
Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive
rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often
involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song,
someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the
song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these
persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of
neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or
broadcasters’ rights, among others. The
Rome
Convention
sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights.
Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.
What are sui generis database
rights?
Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to
prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The
rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of
time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are
primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other
jurisdictions.
What are collecting societies?
Collecting
societies
are copyright management organizations. Some examples of
collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA
(Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies
license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from
parties using the copyrighted works.
CC offers additional information on
how collecting societies might affect your rights and your
ability to apply CC licenses to your work
. CC has several
pilots
underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to
use CC licenses on a limited basis.
What are publicity,
personality, and privacy rights?
These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally
speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice,
image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for
purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these
rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about
them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist,
and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.
Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these
rights
where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity,
personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material
as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those
rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and
may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a
work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you
may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be
affected.
Data
This page supersedes
Databases and Creative Commons
.
Much of the potential value of data is to society at large — more data has
the potential to facilitate enhanced scientific collaboration and
reproducibility, more efficient markets, increased government and corporate
transparency, and overall to speed discovery and understanding of solutions to
planetary and societal needs.
A big part of the potential value of data, in particular its society-wide
value, is realized by use across organizational boundaries. How does this occur
legally? Many sites give narrow permission to use data via terms of service.
Much ad hoc data sharing also occurs among researchers. And increasingly,
sharing of data is facilitated by distribution under standard, public legal
tools used to manage copyright and similar restrictions that might otherwise
limit dissemination or reuse of data, e.g.
CC licenses
or the
CC0
public domain
dedication.
Many organizations, institutions, and governments are using CC tools for
data. For case studies about how these tools are applied, see:
:
Uses of CC Licenses with Data and Databases
:
Uses of CC0 with Data and Databases
Frequently asked
questions about data and CC licenses
Can databases be released
under CC licenses?
Yes,
CC licenses can be used to license databases
. The most
recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and,
where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights
prevent copying and reusing of
substantial parts
of a database (including frequent
extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights
protect the maker’s investment, not originality.
CC does not recommend use of its NonCommercial (NC) or NoDerivatives (ND)
licenses on databases intended for scholarly or scientific use.
In addition to our licenses, the
CC0
Public Domain Dedication
may be used on databases to maximize reuse of
databases. When applied, the effect is to waive all copyright and related
rights in the database and its contents, placing it as close as possible into
the worldwide public domain. In certain domains, such as science and
government, there are important reasons to consider using CC0. Waiving
copyright and related rights eliminates all uncertainty for potential users,
encouraging maximal reuse and sharing of information.
When
a CC license is applied to a database, what is being licensed?
The license terms and conditions apply to the database structure (its
selection and arrangement,
to the extent copyrightable
), its contents (if
copyrightable), and in those instances where the database maker has
sui generis database rights
then the rights that are
granted those makers. Notwithstanding, licensors can choose to license some
rather than all of the rights they have in a database. Creative Commons advises
against this practice. However, if a licensor chooses to do so anyway, we
strongly encourage licensors to clearly demarcate what is and is not licensed.
See
below
for more information regarding how to provide clear
notice of what is licensed.
Before making a database available under a CC license, a database provider
should first make sure she has all rights necessary to do so. Often, the
database provider is not the original author of the database contents. If that
is the case, the database provider should secure separate permission from the
other author(s) before publishing the database under a CC legal tool. If a
database maker decides to license the database without securing permission from
the author(s) of the database contents, it should clearly indicate the material
for which permission has not been secured and clearly mark the material as not
being offered under the terms of the license. For more information, read our
pre-licensing
guidelines.
Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the
database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in
a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our
marking page
for more information on how to clearly
distinguish unlicensed content.
How
do the different CC license elements operate for a CC-licensed database?
Under version 4.0, if an NC license has been applied then any use of the
licensed database or its contents
that is restricted by copyright law
or
sui generis database rights
requires compliance with the
NC term
, even if the database is not publicly shared. The
other license elements (BY, ND, and SA, as applicable) must be complied with
only if your use is so restricted and public sharing is involved. Learn more
about how to comply when
your use implicates copyright
and/or
sui generis database rights
.
Prior CC license versions do not require compliance with the license
restrictions or conditions when only sui generis database rights (and not
copyright) are implicated. Please see below for more detail about
how this works in the current
and
prior versions
of the licenses.
Can I conduct
text/data mining on a CC-licensed database?
Yes. However, you should be aware that whether you have to comply with the
CC license terms and conditions will depend on whether the type of mining
activity you conduct implicates copyright or any applicable sui generis
database rights. If you are not exercising an exclusive right held by the
database maker, then you do not need to rely on the license to mine. Because
there are many different methods for conducting text and data mining, however,
there may be some types of mining activities that will implicate the licensed
rights.
If and only if your particular use is one that would require
permission
, you should note the following:
- Permission:
All six of the 4.0 licenses allow for text and data
mining by granting express permission to privately reproduce, extract, and
reuse the contents of a licensed database and create adapted databases.
- Commercial purposes:
If you are conducting text and data mining
for
commercial
purposes
, you should not mine NC-licensed databases or other material.
- Outputs:
If you publicly share the results of your mining activity
or the data you mined, you should attribute the rights holder. If what you
publicly share qualifies as an adaptation of the licensed material, you should
not mine ND-licensed material. If you share an adaptation of material under an
SA license, you must apply the same license to the adaptation that
results.
If
your use is not one that requires permission under the license
, you may
conduct text and data mining activity without regard to the above
considerations.
How
does the treatment of sui generis database rights vary in prior versions of CC
licenses?
As explained
above
, the current version of the CC license suite (4.0)
licenses sui generis database rights in addition to copyright and other closely
related rights. Past versions of CC licenses operate differently with respect
to sui generis database rights.
In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database
rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the
license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database
rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a
substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does
not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license
does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other
restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis
database rights.
While this result is the same across all CC version 3.0 licenses, the reason
for this outcome varies. In the 3.0 licenses ported to the laws of EU
jurisdictions, the scope of the licenses expressly cover databases subject to
copyright and/or sui generis database rights. However, the conditions of the
license are explicitly waived when use of the licensed work only involves the
exercise of database rights.
By contrast, the 3.0 unported licenses and all other ported licenses do not
expressly license sui generis database rights. As a result, those licenses do
not apply when sui generis database rights alone are implicated. This means a
licensee may need separate permission to use the database in a way that
implicates sui generis database rights (although arguably an implied license to
exercise those rights may be deemed granted in some jurisdictions).
More information on the underlying 3.0 policy decision the treatment of sui
generis database rights those licenses can be found
on
our wiki (.pdf)
.
What
is the difference between the Open Data Commons licenses and the CC 4.0
licenses?
The
Open Database
License (ODbL)
and the
Open Data Commons
Attribution License (ODC-BY)
are licenses designed specifically for use on
databases and not on other types of material. There are many differences
between those licenses and CC licenses, but the most important to be aware of
relate to license scope and operation. The ODC licenses apply only to sui
generis database rights and any copyright in the database structure, they do
not apply to the individual contents of the database. The latest version of the
CC licenses on the other hand apply to sui generis database rights and all
copyright and neighboring rights in the database structure as well as the
contents. (See
above
for more detail about how past versions of CC
licenses vary with respect to sui generis database rights.)
Another important difference is that ODC licenses may create contractual
obligations even in jurisdictions where database rights would not otherwise
exist and but for the license permission would not be necessary. CC has crafted
its licenses to ensure that they
never
impose obligations where permission is not otherwise required
to use the
licensed material.
Frequently asked
questions about data, generally
Which
components of databases are protected by copyright?
With databases, there are likely four components to consider: (1) the
database model or structure, (2) the data entry and output sheet, (3) field
names, and (4) the data or other content.
The
database model
refers to how a database is structured
and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection,
coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is
sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many
jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an
alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright
protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a
particular area did.
These determinations are very fact-specific
(no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.
The
data entry and output sheets
contain questions, and the
answers to these questions are stored in a database. For example, a web page
asking a scientist to enter a gene’s name, its pathway information, and its
ontology would constitute a data entry sheet. The format and layout of these
sheets are protected by copyright according to the same standard of originality
used to determine if the database model is copyrightable.
Field names
describe the contents or data. For example,
“address” might be the name of the field for street address information. These
are less likely to be protected by copyright because they often lack sufficient
originality.
The
data
or other contents contained in the database are
subject to copyright if they are sufficiently creative. Original poems
contained in a database would be protected by copyright, but purely factual
data (such as gene names or city populations) would not. Facts are not subject
to copyright, nor are the ideas underlying copyrighted content.
How
do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by
copyright?
When the database structure or its contents is subject to copyright,
reproducing, distributing, or modifying the database will often be restricted
by copyright law. However, it is important to note that some uses of a
copyrighted database will not be restricted by copyright. It may be possible,
for example, to rearrange or modify the uncopyrightable data in a way that does
not implicate the copyright in the database structure. For example, while (as
noted above) a court in the United States held that a directory of
Chinese-American businesses was restricted by copyright, the same court went on
to hold that a directory that duplicated hundreds of its listings was not
infringing because the listings were categorized and arranged in a sufficiently
dissimilar way. In those situations, compliance with the license conditions is
not required unless the database contents are themselves restricted by
copyright.
Similarly, even where database contents are subject to copyright and
published under a CC license, use of the facts and ideas embedded within the
contents will not require attribution (or compliance with other applicable
license conditions), unless doing so implicates copyright in the database
structure as explained above. This
important limitation of all CC licenses
is highlighted on the license deeds in the Notice section, where we emphasize
that compliance with the license is not required for elements of the material
in the public domain.
If
my use of a database is restricted by copyright, how do I comply with the
license?
All CC licenses require that you attribute the licensor when your use
involves public sharing. Your other obligations depend on the particular CC
license applied to the database. If it is a NC license, any regulated use must
be limited to
noncommercial purposes
only. If a ND is applied, you may
produce an adapted database but cannot share it publicly. If it is a ShareAlike
(SA) license, you must apply the same or a
compatible license
to any adaptation of the database you
share publicly.
Which
components of a database are protected by sui generis database rights?
In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to
protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the
right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a
substantial portion
of the contents.
How
do I know whether a particular use of a database is restricted by sui generis
database rights?
When a database is subject to sui generis database rights, extracting and
reusing a
substantial portion
of the database contents is prohibited
absent some express exception.
It is important to remember that sui generis database rights exist
in only a few countries outside the
European
Union
, such as Korea and Mexico. Generally, if you are using a CC-licensed
database in a location where those rights do not exist, you do not have to
comply with license restrictions or conditions unless copyright (or some other
licensed right) is implicated.
Note that if you are using a database in a jurisdiction where you must
respect database rights, and you receive a CC-licensed work from someone
located in a jurisdiction without database rights, you should determine whether
database rights exist and have been licensed. If so, you need to properly mark
and attribute as the license requires, since the person from whom you received
the database may not have been required to keep that information. If you are
using a licensed database and you do not have to comply with the license terms
because such rights do not exist in your jurisdiction, we recommend that you
retain this information where possible. Doing so assists downstream reusers who
are required to provide it when they share further.
What constitutes
a “substantial portion” of a database?
There is no bright line test for what constitutes a “substantial portion”.
The answer will depend on the law in the relevant jurisdiction. Note that what
constitutes a substantial portion is determined both quantitatively and
qualitatively. Also, using several insubstantial portions can add up to a
substantial portion.
If
my use of a database is restricted by sui generis database rights, how do I
comply with the license?
If the database is released under the current version (4.0) of CC licenses,
you must attribute the licensor if you share a
substantial portion
of the database contents. The other
requirements depend on the particular license applied to the database. Under
the NC licenses, you may not extract and reuse a substantial portion of the
database contents for
commercial
purposes
. The ND licenses prohibit you from including a substantial portion
of the database contents in another publicly shared database in which you have
sui generis database rights of your own. And finally, the SA licenses require
you to apply the same or a
compatible license
to any database you share publicly and
in which you include a substantial portion of the licensed database contents.
Note that this does
not
require you to ShareAlike any
copyright or other rights you have in the individual contents of the
database.
Artificial intelligence and CC
licenses
What
are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new
technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?
The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires
permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works
and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This
includes
uses
that are fair uses
, for example.
If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology,
and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use
without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the
license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our
licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies
where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding
new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.
But
what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection
laws?
CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the
primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other
issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and
that reusers should be aware of. These can include
privacy
and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which
have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues
that CC licenses cover.
What
attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a
published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so,
is it adequate?
It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that
copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data
mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require
permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data
mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our
licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway.
A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content
doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license
obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is
CC-licensed.
Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset,
and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis
database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected.
This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is
reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility,
and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website
where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our
marking
practices
page for more information.
If
a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license
and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC
restriction violated?
This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company,
whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial
advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of
the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its
own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our
NC
page
for more information about what constitutes commercial and non
commercial uses of works.
If NC-licensed content is redistributed to the public under an NC license,
that distribution would not violate the NC clause. (Note that CC strongly
discourages the use of any license terms other than a CC NC license for
redistributions of NC-licensed content.)
If
CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have
to be licensed under an SA license?
CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the
original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly
available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s
licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike,
the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared
publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made
it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what
is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC
licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made
available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still
licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the
distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms.
For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing
website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly
distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but
the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.
What,
if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have
been reused?
Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC
license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other,
separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC
licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a
violation of the license the permissions granted under the
license
remain in place and cannot be revoked
.
- Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated
licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance
themselves from the reuse.
- For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a
fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement.
Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably
without resorting to the courts.
- For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse
may be available depending on your local laws.
An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC
license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights
they do and do not cover. We have many
FAQs
on our website. We also
provide
human-readable
deeds
with links to the
full text of our
licenses
. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many
considerations
that licensors
should have in mind before they license, and considerations
for
reusers
of works
before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.
Notes