Creative Commons licensing
The Creative Commons (CC) licensing movement was set up to enable creators to specify how they would like their content to be used. CC licences are legally binding and internationally recognised, ensuring that your work is protected when you make it available online. CC licences are made up of five main components which can be combined to specify how you would like your resource to be used.
- CC = Creative Commons - Signifies a legally binding Creative Commons licence
- BY = Attribution - Users must cite the original source when reusing your content
- ND = No Derivatives - Users must not alter or change your content when reusing it
- SA = Share Alike - Users must license any new resource under the same terms when reusing your content
- NC = Non-Commercial - Users must not make commercial gain from any new resource when reusing your content
Several of these elements can be combined to produce a legally binding CC licence. Here are some common examples:
CC-BY lets users distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you as the creator
CC-BY-SA lets users distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you as the creator and license any new creations under identical terms
CC-BY-ND allows redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as the content is passed along unchanged and you are credited as the creator
CC-BY-NC lets users distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as they credit you as the creator
CC0 Public domain licence
There is one CC licence that we have not yet mentioned. CC0, or a public domain licence, lets you place your content in the public domain so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse your work for any purpose without any restrictions. This means that users don’t need to give credit to you as the creator when they reuse your work and that they can alter it freely. GCU does not recommend the use of CC0 licences when creating OERs.