Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge & creativity with the world.
Creative Commons licenses are a simple, standardized way to give others permission to share and use your work -- on conditions of your choice. You retain copyright of your work while allowing others to make limited uses.
When you take a photo, make music or shoot a video it’s yours, you own it. You also own the copyright. Which means you decide how it is used and who can use it and if it can be copied and shared (or remixed). Creative Commons is a set of licenses that enable lawful collaboration to do things like copy, share and remix. Creative Commons is a way to give permission to everyone to freely reuse your creative works. Hundreds of sites use these licenses: Wikipedia, YouTube, Archive.org, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Flickr, Bandcamp, Boundless, Jamendo, TED, Musopen, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Free Music Archive, Freesound. Creative Commons makes us all more free to create.
There are six different CC licenses to choose from, ranging from least to most restrictive. Under each license, you retain copyright over your creation but allow others to use it under certain conditions.
| CC License Types | Others must credit you | Others can distribute your work | Others can modify and build on your work | Others must license derivative work under identical conditions | Others can use work for commercial purposes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
CC BY Attribution
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
CC BY-SA Attribution-ShareAlike
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
CC BY-ND Attribution-NoDerivs
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
|
CC BY-NC Attribution-NonCommercial
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
|
CC BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommericial-ShareAlike
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
CC BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs
|
Yes | Yes |
Creative Commons' license choosing tool can help you select the right license:
