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What are Creative Commons licenses?

Each of us has used banks of free photos, films, graphics or music at some point. Most of this content is available in a free form because its authors have decided to share their work under the terms of the Creative Commons license. What are these licenses, how do they work and what should you remember when using resources shared under them? 

Creative Commons Licenses 

Creative Commons is an American non-profit organization that provides free legal tools for protecting works. Their licenses change the standard notation "all rights reserved" to "some rights reserved". The creator can determine on what terms he wants to share his work with the world. This is a compromise between preserving copyright and free access to cultural and artistic goods. 

Types of licenses

When a creator shares a work under a Creative Commons license, they can use several options depending on what rights they want to keep. All licenses include permission to use the work without time or territorial restrictions, free of charge, along with a broad exclusion of the licensor's liability. The individual markings next to the license name inform the licensee of the obligations that rest on them when using the work.

BY - Attribution

ARE - On the same principles 

ND - No Derivative Works

NC - Non-Commercial Use 

The organization distinguishes 6 most commonly used licenses:

CC BY – this is a license that guarantees broad rights to the licensee. The work can be changed, copied, distributed and performed, the only condition being the attribution.

CC BY-SA – this license allows for copying, distributing and performing works as long as the effects of subsequent changes and modifications are made available under the same license. It is also necessary to indicate the author of the original work. Wikipedia, among others, operates under such a license.

CC BY-NC – this is a license to watch out for! It allows copying, distributing and performing works only for non-commercial purposes (i.e. educational, private). However, this license does not cover derivative works (they may be covered by another version of the CC license). We must remember to indicate the creator.

CC BY-ND – We cannot create our own adaptations of the work (derivative works) based on it, but we can distribute and perform the work for commercial and non-commercial purposes in its original version. We must also remember to indicate the authorship.

CC BY-NC-SA – one of the most restrictive licenses. It only allows for non-commercial use of the work, and derivative works created on its basis must be made available under the same license. The principle of attribution of the author applies.

CC BY-NC-ND – the last license, which imposes the most restrictions on the user: the obligation to indicate the author, prohibition of commercial use and creation of derivative works.

What is CC0?

The most desirable designation for users will be CC0. This is not a license, but a sign that informs us that the author has waived all rights to his work, including personal rights (e.g. authorship rights). However, this principle will not function in all legal systems, e.g. in Polish law, waiving personal rights is impossible, therefore we will treat works marked with this symbol as part of the public domain. 

Obligation to mark correctly

The biggest problem with using works shared under CC licenses may be their proper marking. In order for everything to be done legally, when using these works you must provide:

  • name and surname of the creator,
  • song title,
  • source of origin,
  • type of CC license granted,
  • link to appropriate CC license (recommended).

Where can I find content shared under Creative Commons?

Photos or graphics made available under appropriate licenses can be safely used commercially! It is worth saving a few addresses that will expand our database of free materials.

Wikimedia Commons – offers over 80 million different files – photos, graphics and sounds, which can be used free of charge under the license CC BY-SA.

Flickr – is a platform for sharing your photos. Many users decide to share them with a larger group based on one of the CC licenses. All photos available on this basis can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Google images – Google also provides the ability to search for content covered by CC licenses. How to find them? Go to Google images, click “settings”, then “advanced search”. At the very end of the page, click “usage rights” and select “Creative Commons licenses”. Voila! 

Creative Commons licenses can be a source of great materials for commercial use, as well as educational or private use! However, remember to always check under what license the work was made available and what rights we have as a result.

 

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