Choose and apply a CC licence
Page navigation: Attribution (BY) | Attribution-Noncommercial (BY-NC) | Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND) | Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike (BY-NC-SA) | Attribution-No Derivative Works (BY-ND) | Attribution-Share Alike (BY-SA)
This page lets you choose a Creative Commons licence.
If you haven’t used CC licences before, or need a reminder, the Creative Commons international site offers some things to think about before you apply any CC licence to your work, and then you can choose to answer some questions to determine the licence best suited to your needs.
Or, simply choose from one of the licences listed below. They share a set of baseline rights. Whichever pathway you use, your licence choice will be expressed in three ways:
- Commons Deed. A plain-language summary of the licence, complete with the relevant icons.
- Legal Code. The fine print that you need to be sure that the licence will stand up in court.
- Digital Code. A machine-readable translation of the licence that helps search engines and other applications identify your work by its terms of use.
For help in applying your licence in either html or non-html formats (Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, etc), visit the FAQs section.
Attribution (BY)
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of the licences offered, in terms of what others can do with your works licensed under Attribution.
Pop-up exampleJess publishes her photograph with an Attribution licence, because she wants to share her pictures with people around the world as long as they give her credit. Rangi finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. He puts Jess’s picture on his site, and clearly indicates Jess’s authorship. |
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Attribution-Noncommercial (BY-NC)
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work noncommercially and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be noncommercial, they do not have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Pop-up exampleDave publishes his photograph on his blog with a Noncommercial licence. Shanti prints Dave’s photograph. Shanti is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Dave’s permission. |
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Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)
This licence is the most restrictive of our six main licences, allowing redistribution. This licence is often called the “free advertising” licence because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they cannot change them in any way or use them commercially.
Pop-up exampleKate releases an original vocal recording on to the Internet Archive under an Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works licence. Nick wants to use Kate’s song as a track in his short film. Nick must credit Kate and her song, and is not allowed to alter the audio track in any way without her permission. Nick also wants to distribute some dvd copies of his film to friends. He must not receive any money for these copies. |
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Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work noncommercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work as they can with the BY-NC-ND licence, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same licence; so any derivatives will also be noncommercial in nature.
Pop-up exampleGus's online photo is licensed under the Noncommercial and Share Alike terms. Camille is an amateur collage artist, and she takes Gus's photo and puts it into one of her collages. This Share Alike language requires Camille to make her collage available on a Noncommercial plus Share Alike licence. It makes her offer her work back to the world on the same terms Gus gave her. |
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Attribution-No Derivative Works (BY-ND)
This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and noncommercial of your work, as long as it is passed along unchanged and whole, with credit to you.
Pop-up exampleKiri licenses a recording of her song with a No Derivative Works licence. Joe would like to cut Kiri’s track and mix it with his own to produce an entirely new song. He cannot do this without Kiri’s permission. |
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Attribution-Share Alike (BY-SA)
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This licence is often compared to open source software licences. All new works based on yours will carry the same licence; so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.
Pop-up exampleTim creates some digital graphic designs and licenses them as Attribution-Share Alike. A class of students re-work Tim’s graphics as part of their individual assignments. Some of the students want to release their new designs online, but they must release them as Attribution-Share Alike also. |
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