Licences explained
Page navigation: History | Theory | Licence categories
History
Creative Commons was founded in 2001 with the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain. It is led by a Board of Directors that includes cyberlaw and intellectual property experts James Boyle, Michael Carroll, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling, and Lawrence Lessig, MIT computer science professor Hal Abelson, lawyer-turned-documentary filmmaker-turned-cyberlaw expert Eric Saltzman, renowned documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, noted Japanese entrepreneur Joi Ito, and public domain web publisher Eric Eldred.
CC Aotearoa New Zealand is the New Zealand collaborator of Creative Commons International, which is a project of Creative Commons, the creator of the Creative Commons licences. The decision to develop New Zealand Creative Commons licences was an outcome of a meeting of interested parties that occurred on 3 August 2006 at the National Library. The New Zealand Licences became available in 2007 under the auspices of Te Whāinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities who are committed to the promotion of Creative Commons in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Theory
Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which “all rights reserved” (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.
Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare “some rights reserved.”
Licence categories
The following describes each of the six main Creative Commons licences which are offered by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand. They are listed starting with the most accommodating licence type you can choose with which to publish your work. It is also helpful to know that there are a set of baseline rights all six licences offer to others.
1. Attribution (BY):
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as longas they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of 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 non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t 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 can’t 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 non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the BY-ND-SA 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 non-commercial 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 non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in 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 reasons, 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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