Creative commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that works to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in 'the commons'. The commons refers to a body of work that is available to the public for free to legally share, use, repurpose, and remix.

Creators can apply a Creative Commons (CC) licence to their work to define to others how their work can be reproduced or reused. The New Zealand Creative Commons YouTube video explains the different licences. Visit the Australian Creative Commons website.

Search creative commons from the Creative Commons website. You can also find CC licenced material via a drop-down search in most browsers.

Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use legal tools that give everyone from individual creators to major companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to pre-clear copyrights to their creative work. CC licenses let people easily change their copyright terms from the default of 'all rights reserved' to 'some rights reserved.

Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They apply on top of copyright, so you can modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs. Creative Commons have collaborated with intellectual property experts all around the world to ensure that their licenses work globally.

All of their tools are free and can be viewed at Creative Commons.

The Creative Commons site has more information on:

the history and theory behind Creative Commons
an explanation of the basic licence protocols and the baseline rights associated with the CC standard licences
an explanation of the legal concepts, including information on the public domain, the commons, open content and intellectual property conservancies
things to think about before using a Creative Commons licence

In 2005 Creative Commons (CC) Australia started as an official affiliate of the international Creative Commons project. Hosted at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, the group initially managed the Australian version of the CC licences and conducted research and education activities designed to foster a creative and innovative community in our region.

From 2018 CC Australia shifted from the affiliate program to a Global Network Structure. Australian became the first country to establish its own Chapter in the Creative Commons Global Network.

Australia is one of over 45 countries worldwide who have taken up the Creative Commons project.

The same basic principles apply to providing attribution across all CC licences. When attributing a work under a CC licence you should:

Credit the creator;
Provide the title of the work;
Provide the URL where the work is hosted;
Indicate the type of licence it is available under and provide a link to the licence (so others can find out the licence terms); and
Keep intact any copyright notice associated with the work.

Creative Commons Australia provides the following tips on attributing material licenced under Creative Commons and their website contains various examples of different mediums.

Medium	Attribution tips
Books, magazines, journals	Remembering to spell out the licence type and URL in full, include the relevant attribution information next to the CC work or as a footer along the bottom of the page on which appears. Alternatively, you can list the CC works in the back of the publication. If you take this option, it is best to indicate the page number of the work or order in which they appear in the publication.
Photos and images	Provide the relevant attribution next to the photograph, or close by (eg on the edge or bottom of the page) if that is too obtrusive.
Slideshows	Include the relevant attribution information next to the CC work or as a footer along the bottom of the work on each slide on which the work appears. Alternatively, you can include a 'credits' slide at the end of the show, that lists all the materials used and their attribution details. Again, you should indicate the slide or order so people can find the attribution for a specific work.
Film	Include the relevant attribution information with the work when it appears on screen during the film. If this is not possible, attribute the work in the credits, just as you would see in a normal film.
Podcasts	Mention the name of the artist and that it is under a CC licence during the podcast, like a radio announcement, and provide full attribution on your website, next to where the podcast is available.

Open Educational Resources (OERs)

OER are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain and have been released under an open licence that permits access, use, repurposing, reuse and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions (Atkins, Brown & Hammond, 2007). The use of open technical standards improves access and reuse potential.

Creative Commons licences are generally applied to OER materials. What you are permitted to do with each type of licence and how you attribute is outlined below.

License	License details	Explanation	Summary
^{CC BY}	Attribution	Materials with this licence can be used and repurposed, even for commercial purposes. This makes them very safe for use in your teaching, as there is no conflict with SCU's IP policy. As with all the other licences, you need to ensure you attribute the work correctly.	Very generous terms make this the most useful licence View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-SA}	Attribution-Share Alike	If you are using, but not changing materials with a Share Alike licence, this can be a great licence for teaching and learning material. Just ensure you attribute the work appropriately. However if you are planning to change and repurpose the material (ie. make a derivative), then you are required to licence the new material with the same Attribution-Share Alike licence. This may be in conflict with SCU's Intellectual Property policy, which states that material created for teaching purposes remains the property of SCU.	Generous and useful, but may conflict with SCU IP Policy. View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC}	Attribution-Noncommercial	Using material with this licence may be fine for teaching at SCU, as it is educational rather than commercial use. The licence allows you to adapt the material and change the CC licence of the derivative (as long as it is not commercial). Be aware, however, using materials with this licence cannot be sold later for commercial purposes.	Appropriate licence for SCU educational materials (with no commercialisation). View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC-SA}	Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike	Whilst this licence allows adaption of material, the Share Alike component means that repurposed work would need to have an open licence. This may conflict with SCU IP Policy. Noncommercial component is fine for SCU educational materials that are not to be commercialised at any stage.	Generous for adapting educational work but potential conflicts with SCU IP Policy. View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-ND}	Attribution-No Derivative Works	This licence allows you to use the materials for teaching at SCU, but you cannot change them. This allows you to embed the resources in a larger educational resource. However ensure that you leave the material whole and unchanged and attribute it appropriately.	Good when just using material, but cannot change or adapt. View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC-ND}	Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works	Material with this licence cannot be adapted, and has the potential issue of the non-commercial restriction. This material would be suitable for inclusion in a reading list but cannot be repurposed.	Use this type of material as supplemental learning materials and do not repurpose it. View Australian Licence Deed

Atkins, D.E., Brown, J.S., & Hammond, A.L. (2007). A review of the open educational resources (OER) movement: Achievements, challenges, and new opportunities. Retrieved from www.oerafrica.org/resource/review-open-educational-resources-oer-movement-achievements-challenges-and-new

The information on this page has been adapted from and is licensed under a CC BY 3.0 Licence.

"CC icon", by Font Awesome, © Creative Commons, licenced under a CC BY 4.0 International licence.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that aims to increase the amount of creative, cultural, educational, and scientific content freely available to the public to legally share, use, repurpose, and remix.

CC licenses offer a simple, standardised way for creators to permit users to reproduce, reuse, or remix a work. CC licences do not replace copyright, but work alongside it.

Creative Commons (CC) licences

BY Attribution

The work can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed or remixed but the original creator must be attributed. This element is present in all CC licences.

SA Share Alike

The work can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed and modified. Adaptations of the work must be distributed under the same terms as the original.

NC Non-Commercial

The work can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed, and modified but only for non-commercial uses.

ND No Derivatives

The work can be copied, distributed, displayed, and performed only in it's original form.

License	License details	Explanation	Licence deed
^{CC BY}	Attribution	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed, or modified. The creator of the original work must be attributed.	View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-SA}	Attribution-Share Alike	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed and modified provided the modified version is shared under the same terms as the original.	View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC}	Attribution-Non-Commercial	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed, and modified for non-commercial purposes only.	View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC-SA}	Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed, performed, and modified for non-commercial purposes provided the modified version is shared under the same terms as the original.	View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-ND}	Attribution-No Derivatives	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed, and performed only it's original form.	View Australian Licence Deed
^{CC BY-NC-ND}	Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives	Materials with this licence can be copied, distributed, displayed and performed only in its original form and for non-commercial purposes.	View Australian Licence Deed

^{Information about the CC licences has been adapted from "Six licences for sharing your work", by Creative Commons, CC0 Public Domain Dedication.}

^{Creative Commons Licence Icons, by Creative Commons, are shared under a CC BY 4.0 International licence.}

Applying a CC licence to your work

The CC Licence Chooser tool is designed to help choose an appropriate licence. Otherwise, consider what rights are not necessary for to retain and apply a licence that matches. State the relevant licence in the copyright notice or somewhere visible on the work. Providing a sample attribution is also useful to help others credit the work.

When publishing open access with a commercial publisher authors are offered a choice from a prescribed selection of CC licences. Carefully read the terms of each licence before choosing.

Choose a licence carefully, once it has been applied it can not be revoked.

Finding Creative Commons material

There are many tools that curate open access, CC licenced material.

Text resources (e.g. articles and books)

Find open access material (material that has been licenced with a CC licence) by doing a search through the Library catalogue and selecting "Open Access" from the Availability filters.

When looking specifically for open educational resources or open textbooks the Library's collection and guide are a good starting point.

Images

Find CC licenced images from search engines including:

OpenVerse
Flickr Creative Commons
Google Images (limit your search under Usage rights> Creative Commons licences).

Attributing CC licenced material

The TASL format can be used to attribute CC licenced material:

Title
Author
Source (provide a link to where the material can be found, this is usually achieved by hyperlinking the title of the material)
Licence (state the CC licence and provide a link to the licence deed)

A sample template for this format is:

[Title], by [Author] is licenced under [CC XX].

For example:

"The Choices", by Orin Zebest is licenced under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

For adaptations, attribute the original work so others can see what was changed. A sample template for this format is:

This work [Title of adaptation], is adapted from [Title of original], by [original author], used under [CC licence of original]. [Title of adaptation], by [author of adaptation] is licenced under [CC licence applied to adaptation].

How does Creative Commons work?

Creative Commons in Australia

Attributing Creative Commons materials