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Copyright

Guide to copyright basics and policies at Otterbein University.

What are Creative Commons Licenses?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Attribution

The Creative Commons (CC) licences are an easy-to-understand set of licences which allow a tiered set of usage so that creators get acknowledged for their work and the integrity of the work is protected. All CC licences have attribution at their core.

The licences are:

Creative Commons Logo Attribution (CC-BY)

This is the least restrictive of the Creative Commons licences. This one means that in order to use your work, people just have to acknowledge that you were the original creator.

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-Share Alike (CC-BY-SA)

The next layer up is a Share-Alike licence, which means that people can modify your work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they acknowledge you as the original creator. They do not have to pay to use your work under this licence, but they do have to licence their own creation under the same terms (so, use the CC-BY-SA licence). Wikipedia use this licence.

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-No Derivatives (CC-BY-ND)

Under this licence, people can use your work (including for commercial purposes), but they cannot share it in its modified form. 

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)

Non-commercial licences are just that - people can use your work, as long as they're going to make it freely available and not use it for commercial gain. However, they don't have to licence their new work on the same terms.

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike (CC-BY-NC-SA)

This licence allows people to use and adapt your work, as long as they make it freely available and do not use it for commercial gain. People must also acknowledge you as the original creator, and licence their own creation under the same terms.  

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)

This is the most restrictive of all the CC licences. Basically, new users have to acknowledge you as the original creator, not use your work for a commercial purpose, and not share it in its modified form.

Creative Commons Logo Attribution-Public Domain (CC0)

This is s a public dedication tool, which allows creators to give up their copyright and put their works into the worldwide public domain.