Creative Commons

Creative Commons licenses work on top of copyright law.

Creators can choose to grant permission for use of their work under the conditions of the license, electing for "some rights reserved" instead of the copyright standard of "all rights reserved" or "no rights reserved" for works in the public domain.
 

	Copyright = All rights reserved. Permission for reuse is required.
	Creative Commons License = Some rights reserved. Conditions for reuse is outlined under specific license elements.
	Public Domain = No rights reserved. There are no conditions or restrictions for use.

Creative Commons licenses:

• can only be applied by the creator or rights holder of the work 
• allow creators to retain copyright, get credit for their work, and grant permission for specific uses 
• are legally enforceable
• are designed to be understood by the general public
• are applicable unless a user violates the terms of the license or the work's copyright term expires

Creative Commons licenses consist of a three layer design:

1. The legal code:
   "Lawyer-readable" terms and conditions that can be legally enforced in court, e.g., CC BY 4.0 Legal Code. 
2. Commons deeds:
   "Human-readable" summaries of the legal code that are not enforceable in court, but are easily understood by the general public, e.g., CC BY 4.0 Deed. 
3. "Machine readable" license:
   Metadata with standardized license descriptions called CC Rights Expression Language (CC REL) that can be attached to a digital work so that search engines can more easily find CC licensed works. 

Three Layers of License by Nathan Yergler and Alex Roberts, Creative Commons, is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Creative Commons licenses consist of combinations of four elements. The elements outline the specific conditions for reuse of the work. Each has a visual icon and two letter abbreviation.
 

BY	Attribution: Credit must be given to the creator of the work.
NC	NonCommercial: The work may be used by anyone as long as it is used noncommercially. The work's creator can make still money from the work, but public users the public cannot.
SA	ShareAlike: Adapted or modified works must be shared under the same or compatible license conditions of the original work.
ND	NoDerivatives: The work may be copied and shared, but modifications or adaptations may not be shared.

There are six Creative Commons licenses made from combinations of the four licenses elements.
 

Attribution License - CC BY
Allows others to copy, share, and adapt the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as attribution to the creator is provided.   
 

Attribution-ShareAlike License - CC BY-SA 
Allows others to copy, share, and adapt the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as attribution to the creator is provided and adaptations of the work are shared under the same or a compatible license. This license is most similar to a "copyleft" open software license. 
 

Attribution-NonCommercial License - CC BY-NC
Allows others to copy, share, and adapt the work as long as attribution to the creator is provided and the work is used only for non-commercial purposes. 

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - CC BY-NC-SA
Allows others to copy, share, and adapt the work as long as attribution to the creator is provided, the work is used only for non-commercial purposes, and adaptations of the work are shared with the same or a compatible license. 
 

Attribution-NoDerivatives License - CC BY-ND
Allows others to copy and share the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as attribution to the creator is provided and the work is used and shared without any changes or adaptations. The work may be adapted for personal use, but the adaptation cannot be shared with others.  
 

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License - CC BY-NC-ND
Allows others to copy and share the work as long as attribution to the creator is provided, the work is only used for non-commercial purposes, and the work is used and shared without any changes or adaptations. This license has the most restrictions of any CC license. 

Creative Commons also provides two public domain tools. The public domain tools work differently than CC licenses. 

CCO Tool
Some creators prefer to dedicate their work to the public domain and release their work with "no rights reserved." The CC0 mark:

• Allows creators to apply an international public domain mark to their work even if their country does not allow creators to waive copyright before the copyright term expires.
• Means that the creator will not attempt to reassert their copyright against users.
• Means that users are allowed to use the work in any way they'd like with no conditions.
• Is comprised of three layers like the CC licenses: lawyer-readable legal code, human-readable deeds, and machine-readable metadata.  

Public Domain Mark
This mark does not have any legal implications, but it can be used to label works known to be in the public domain. It is a popular and helpful tool often used by libraries, museums, and archives. 

What about copyright exceptions like fair use? 

• Copyright law does not prohibit activities like reading a book or watching a film. 

• CC licenses grant extra permission so that users can copy, share, adapt, and remix a work.

• CC licenses do not impact copyright exceptions like fair use or accommodations for people with disabilities. For example, if a specific use of a copyrighted work would be allowable under fair use, that use is acceptable whether the work has a CC licenses or not. 

Can I CC license works in the public domain?

• CC licenses should not be applied to works in the public domain because that would be restricting the use of a work for which there are no restrictions.  

What if a work with a CC license contains copyrighted content?

• Some CC licensed works may contain copyrighted content that was used with permission. The CC license in this case applies to the rest of the work, but not the copyrighted content.

Do CC licenses extend beyond copyright law? 

• CC licenses only apply to copyright and do not impact rights covered by patents, trademarks, privacy, and publicity rights. 

What about AI-generated content?

• CC licenses can only be applied to content that is copyrightable. AI content cannot be copyrighted, as content must be human-created to qualify for copyright protection.
• If AI is used for an early draft and revisions/redrafting produces an end product that has a level of originality that could be considered human-created, then a CC license could be applied with disclosure of the use of AI for an early draft.