3 About Creative Commons Licences
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
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Identify and describe the key features of the Creative Commons (CC) licensing framework, including how it relates to copyright and the public use of works.
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Explain the main CC licence conditions (Attribution, ShareAlike, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives) and the core permission set that CC licences grant.
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Distinguish between the different types of CC licences (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, etc.) and the implications of each for reuse, remixing and redistribution.
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Analyse how CC licences can be applied in educational, institutional and open-publishing contexts (for example, in OER creation and sharing).
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Evaluate compatibility issues when combining or adapting works under different CC licences and propose appropriate licensing decisions for derivative or remixed works.
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Demonstrate correct attribution practices for CC-licensed works and embed licence information in reused/adapted content.
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Reflect on the benefits, limitations and strategic considerations of using CC licences in an organisation or publication workflow (including issues of open access, reuse, and author control).
Creative Commons licences give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardised way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?”
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons (CC) is a licence applied to a work protected by Copyright. It’s a way of easily sharing copyrighted work without giving up total control or spending countless hours granting permissions.
- Users only need to seek the creator’s permission to use the work in a way not permitted by the licence.
- CC licences allow works to be used for educational purposes. As a result, instructors and students can freely copy, share, and sometimes modify and remix a CC work without seeking the creator’s permission.
CC licences are not an alternative to copyright. They are built on copyright and similar rights and last for the same length of term as these rights. The licences enable rights holders to specify a standard set of terms and conditions for sharing and reuse that best suit their needs, while ensuring that authors are credited for their work.
Videos
Watch these videos that explain Creative Commons licences in more detail.
Credit. Creating OER and Combining Creative Commons Licences [9:16] by Florida Virtual Campus is licensed under a Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
Credit. Creative Commons Basics [1:36] by Pollack Library eLearning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Credit. Creative Commons Licensing Explained [3:45] by Max Noble, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Figure 3.1
What Does Creative Commons Mean?
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the module, learners will be able to:
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Define in their own words the purpose of CC licences and how they complement copyright law (e.g., explain that CC licences are built on copyright rather than replacing it).
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List and explain the four core CC conditions (BY, SA, NC, ND) and map each of the standard licences to those conditions.
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Compare and contrast at least three different CC licence types (for example, CC BY vs CC BY-SA vs CC BY-NC-ND) and identify appropriate use-cases for each (especially in educational/open publishing contexts).
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Apply a CC licence to a hypothetical work (for example: “I create an educational video and I want others to adapt it but not commercially sell it”) and justify which CC licence is most appropriate and why.
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Identify where licence compatibility issues may arise when merging works (for example, when one component is CC BY and another is CC BY‐ND) and propose a remediation or licensing strategy (for instance, choosing a compatible licence or seeking permission).
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Produce an attribution statement for a reused CC-licensed work that meets best practice (for example: Author name, title, source URL, licence version).
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Critically assess the strategic implications of adopting CC licences in an institutional workflow (for example, open educational resource (OER) deployment, repository policies, creator rights, reuse potential) and articulate at least two benefits and two limitations of doing so in their context.
