There are four main conditions you can apply to a CC license.
Attribution - all CC licenses require this condition. Users must attribute their source, explain changes they've made, and link to the original work. Their attribution should not give the impression that the original creator(s) endorses their work.
Non-Commercial - this condition means that users are free to use and adapt your work, but they cannot do so for commercial purposes.
Share Alike - this condition means that users need to distribute any modified works with the same license. It's intended to keep CC licensed works as part of the commons rather than locked up with all rights reserved.
No Derivatives - users can copy, distribute, perform and display the work, but they need permission from the creator(s) to make any changes.
The four different license conditions can be mixed and matched to create licenses for different situations. There are six main license types you can use to specify what people are allowed to do with your work.
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Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). Link to CC-BY license. |
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Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. Link to CC-BY-NC license. |
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Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s), and if they choose to remix/build upon the work, it must be distributed with the same license. Link to CC-BY-SA license. |
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Users are free to copy and redistribute the content - even commercially. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). The work may not be redistributed with changes. Link to CC-BY-ND license. |
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Users are free to copy, adapt, remix, and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. If the user chooses to remix/build upon the work, it must be distributed with the same license. Link to CC-BY-NC-SA license. |
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Users are free to copy and redistribute the content. User must give appropriate credit to the creator(s). User may not use the content for commercial purposes. The work may not be redistributed with changes. Link to CC-BY-NC-ND license. |
Creative Commons also provides licenses for those who want to dedicate their work to the Public Domain (see the Public Domain LibGuide) or for those who want to mark existing Public Domain documents as such.
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Use the CC-0 license if you want to waive all your copyrights to that work. This essentially dedicates your work to the public domain and means other people will be able to use it however they like. |
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Use the Public Domain Mark if you have a work that is already a part of the public domain and you want to make that clear to users. Do not use this designation if you aren't totally sure of the copyright status of the item. |
