Using a CC licensed work

Page navigation: Introduction | About Attribution (BY) | Examples

Creative Commons can allow sharing, redistribution and reworking of licensed material by users from around the world. Aside from understanding the licence categories, there are some important practices that people sharing Creative Commons licensed work should observe. This page will help you fulfil your obligation to other creators by always attributing their CC work properly.

Here are the licence categories offered both internationally and in the New Zealand jurisdiction:

• 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

Basic information about each of these licences can be viewed at the licences explained page. Further information, including the legal description of each licence, can be viewed at the choose and apply a licence page.

About Attribution (BY)

All of the licences state that you must attribute a work to its creator if you wish to show or redistribute it. In other words, you are legally required to reference/name/give credit to the licence holder so that they are not being plagiarised or ripped off. (Remember, five of these licences require that you comply with additional rules as well as attribution).

When attributing, you should make reference to:

• The licence holder in the way that they specify (but often licence holders will not ask you to reference them in a specific way)
• The CC licence of the work

This ensures that vital information about the CC licence and the CC licence holder gets passed along with the material itself, and into the hands of other potential users.

Examples

When sharing and redistributing, you can attribute a work in plain words if you are working offline, or using CC material that isn’t located on the internet. Use phrases such as:

Otherwise, the most considerate, safest and best way to attribute is to provide links to both the licence owner’s website and the appropriate licence deed page:

When crediting, use words like: ‘based on’ or ‘samples have been used from’.

Remember, you are only permitted to change an original work if the licence holder has not included ‘No Derivative Works (ND)’ as part of their CC licence.

When you are licensing material that is a derivative version of someone else’s CC licensed work, all you need to do is provide the relevant information about the original work you have used from someone else (alongside your own new licence details).

The simplest way of covering your Attribution requirement when re-licensing, is to visit the International License Your Work page. When selecting your own CC licence, you are able to fill in additional information options. The ‘Source URL’ box is for you to provide a link back to the original creator and/or work.

More Questions? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page

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