Understanding
Creative Commons
license
before licensing your work
TH R EE-LA Y ER  D ESIG N
"Legal Code" (base layer): contains term s and conditions to be
used by lawyers and legally applicable in court.
"Hum an Readable" (com m ons deeds): contain the sum m ary of
the legal code and key term s.
"Machine Readable": contains HTML or codes for m achines to
recognize a work is available under a Creative Com m ons license.
Creative Com m ons (CC) license has three layers:
FO U R  ELEM EN TS
BY ("Attribution"): users m ust credit the author of the work they
are using.
SA ("ShareAlike"): adaptations based on this work m ust be
licensed under the sam e license.
NC ("NonCom m ercial"): the work is only available to be used for
noncom m ercial purposes.
ND ("NoDerivative"): reusers m aking cannot share adaptations of
the work.
BY
SA
NC
ND
SIX  LICEN SES
CC BY ("Attribution") allows people to use the work for any purpose (even
com m ercially and even in m odified form ) as long as they give attribution to the
creator.
CC BY-SA ("Attribution-ShareAlike") allows people to use the work for any purpose
(even com m ercially and even in m odified form ), as long as they give attribution to the
creator and m ake any adaptations they share with others available under the sam e or
a com patible license.
CC BY-NC ("Attribution-NonCom m ercial") allows people to use the work for
noncom m ercial purposes only, and only as long as they give attribution to the
creator.
CC BY-NC-SA ("Attribution-NonCom m ercial-ShareAlike") allows people to use the
work for noncom m ercial purposes only, and only as long as they give attribution to
the creator and m ake any adaptations they share with others available under the
sam e or a com patible license.
CC BY-ND ("Attribution-NoDerivative") allows people to use the unadapted work for
any purpose (even com m ercially), as long as they give attribution to the creator.
CC BY-NC-ND ("Attribution-NonCom m ercial-NoDerivative") allows people to use the
unadapted work for noncom m ercial purposes only, and only as long as they give
attribution to the licensor.
R EM IN D  TH A T…
you want to give others perm issions to freely copy and
redistribute your work, and
you want to give others perm ission to freely transform , alter, or
otherwise create derivative works based on your work.
CC license only applicable to the work that is within the scope of
copyright law. CC license can be used when …
CC LICEN SE CA N 'T B E U SED  FO R  …
fair use, fair dealing, or som e other lim itation and exception to
copyright applies the the work.
A LSO  FO R  …
the work that is already in the Public Dom ain.
For those who want to waive their rights from  copyright protection,
use CC0 ("CC Zero").
N O W , SH A R E Y O U R  W O R K !
https://creativecom m ons.org/choose/
Texts are adapted from CC Certification for Educators. CC BY license.
BY, SA, NC, ND icons, CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND buttons are trademark of Creative Commons, and subject to their policies.
3-layer design of CC license image is taken from CC Certification for Educators. CC BY license.
Line, icons, and gradients are from Canva, and subject to their policies.
more open »« more restrictive
you can share,remix, &commercialize
you can share &remix onlyyou can share only