Anatomy of a Creative Commons License - OER Background: Creative Commons (CC) - Licensing and OER - Library Home at Fox Valley Technical College

Three layers of CC licenses

Machine Readable version of the license
"Summary of the key freedoms and obligations written into a format that software systems, search engines, and other kinds of technology can understand."
Commons Deed
Summarizes the key license terms and condition in a human readable form.
Legal Code
This is the layer for lawyers, with terms and conditions that are legally enforceable in court.
Creative Commons Licenses ONLY apply to works that are protected by copyright.
They provide a legal way to remove some copyright restrictions.
Once the copyright runs out * the work becomes part of the public domain, with no restrictions on use.
* Currently, copyright extends for 95 years up to author’s life plus 70 years, from the time the creative work is fixed in tangible form.

Creative Commons Licenses and Public Domain

Image Source: Gallery Slideshow File:Creative commons license spectrum.svg

Creative Commons Licenses are made up of Four Elements

These different license elements are symbolized by visual icons.

This symbol means Attribution or “BY.” All of the licenses include this condition. ALWAYS give credit where credit is due, either by citation or attribution. It is the ethical and professional thing to do.

This symbol means NonCommercial or “NC,” which means the work is only available to be used for noncommercial purposes. You cannot legally USE the work to make a profit. If you do, you can be sued

This symbol means NoDerivatives or “ND,” which means reusers cannot share adaptations of the work. You cannot edit or modify works before making multiple copies and giving them to others in your classroom.

This symbol means ShareAlike or “SA,” which means that adaptations based on this work must be licensed under the same license. SA restriction is important when you use CC SA licensed content to create new learning objects. For help, ask a librarian.

You can download official "Creative Commons Icons"