While copyright remains with the author or creator of a work, Creative Commons (CC) Licences provide a standardised way for copyright owners to allow others to use their creative work without seeking permission. There are four elements that can be combined to form six different licences.
BY Attribution The work can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed, or remixed but the original creator must be attributed.
SA Share Alike The work must be shared or distributed with the same licence as the original.
NC Non-Commercial The work can be used but only for non-commercial purposes.
ND No Derivatives The original work cannot be adapted or remixed, it must be copied verbatim.
CC BY Users can distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the material (including for commercial use) as long as the creator is attributed.
CC BY-SA Users can distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the material (including for commercial use) as long as the modified material is licenced under the same terms.
CC BY-NC Users can distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given to the creator.
CC BY-NC-SA Users can distribute, remix, adapt and build on the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes provided the creator is attributed and the material is licenced under the same terms.
CC BY-ND Users can copy verbatim and distribute the material in any medium or format (including for commercial use) provided the creator is attributed.
CC BY-NC-ND Users can copy verbatim and redistribute the material in any material or format, for non-commercial purposes only, as long as the creator is attributed.
Creative Commons Icons, by Creative Commons, shared under a CC BY 4.0 International Licence
The core condition that applies to all six of the CC licences is the attribution condition. Make sure that the author of the work is attributed and always check the licence to find out what permissions the author has attributed.
'The Six Creative Commons Licenses' image is a derivative of an image by Cable Green, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
If your work is your own original content, you can choose any appropriate CC licence. When creating an OER at SCU the preference is for the material to be licenced with a CC BY licence. However, if your work includes third-party copyright material or CC licenced material this will affect the licence you can choose.
Third-party copyright material is material that is protected by copyright and has not been separately licenced to allow others to reuse it. When creating OER it is recommended that you avoid using third-party copyright material. If you want to use copyright material, you will need to seek written permission from the copyright owner or author. When requesting permission, provide full details of the material you would like to copy and how you are planning to use it including:
Be aware that the copyright owner has the right to set terms under which you are permitted to reuse their work. These terms could affect the CC licence you apply to the work. Any third-party copyright material used with permission must be correctly attributed to indicate that anyone who would like to adapt the work will need to seek permission from the author or copyright holder to use the work in their adaptation.
While it is recommended that you use CC licenced material as much as possible, be aware that material that has the SA element in the licence requires you to apply the same licence to the adapted work. This means if you are reusing or remixing material that has a CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA licence your OER would need to have the same licence.
CC Licence Compatibility Chart, by Kennisland, used under CC0 licence.
