Creative Commons Licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. You can’t attach a CC license to a work unless you own its copyright.
Whenever you are using CC licensed works, it is recommended that the attribution include the Title, Author, Source, and License. This is true whether you’re sharing the work as-is or if you have made an adaptation. To remember these attribution elements, it’s helpful to think of the acronym: TASL.
Creative Commons licenses consist of 4 different elements that can be combined to form 6 different license options.
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Attribution or BY. All licenses include this element. |
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Non-commercial or NC. This designates that the work can only be used for non-commercial purposes. |
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Share Alike or SA. This indicates that adaptations based on the work must be licensed under the same or compatible license. |
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No Derivatives or ND. This means that users cannot share adaptations of the work. (Users may make adaptations for private use but users may not distribute those adaptations.) |
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CC BY or Attribution License. Others may use the work for any purpose with attribution given to the creator. Many journals and platforms use CC BY licenses for their open access articles, allowing researchers to freely access and utilize the published research. Articles published with open access charges are frequently published under this license. |
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CC BY-SA or Attribution-ShareAlike License. Others may use the work for any purpose with attribution given to the creator; the adaptation must be licensed under the same or compatible license. |
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CC BY-NC or Attribution-NonCommercial License. Others may use the work for non-commercial uses only with attribution given to the creator. |
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CC BY-NC-SA or Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Others may use the work for non-commercial uses only with attribution given to the creator; the adaptation must be licensed under the same or compatible license. |
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CC BY-ND or Attribution-NoDerivatives License. Others may use the unmodified work for any purpose with attribution given to the creator. |
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CC BY-NC-ND or Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License. Others may use the unmodified work for noncommercial uses only with attribution given to the creator. |
