The nonprofit Creative Commons provides a way to easily share and reuse content through its free copyright licenses. The use of a Creative Commons license does not remove copyright from an item (image, article, video, etc.), but it does allow the copyright holder to identify how the item can be used. Creative Commons licenses are described in more detail in the section below.
Creative Commons and OER
OER are often published under a Creative Commons license, so a basic understanding of these licenses helps you determine how an OER can be used. The links below
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Below is a brief overview of the license conditions that can be applied to copyrighted works. OPEN Washington's OER course contains an excellent Creative Common licenses module, which provides an in-depth examination of this topic.
License Conditions
Creative Commons currently has four main types of license conditions a copyright holder can use when publishing her work. Below is description of each type.
CC-BY/Attribution
This condition is the least restrictive of the Creative Commons licenses. Attribution only requires that others must give credit to the original copyright holder when using the work even if the original work has been revised in any way. All Creative Commons licenses require attribution, including licenses using the conditions below.
CC-SA/Attribution ShareAlike
ShareAlike requires that anyone creating a modified version of a work must publish the new work, even commercially, using the same terms as the original license, crediting original copyright holder.
CC-NC/Attribution-NonCommercial
NonCommercial allows for the use and reuse of a work as long as it is not for commercial purposes and the original copyright holder is credited.
CC-ND/NoDerivatives
NoDerivatives allows for the use of a work, even commercially, but the original work cannot be modified without seeking permission from the original copyright holder, who must be credited.
Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike
Non-commercial Share-alike allows for revision of the original work non-commercial work giving credit to the original copyright holder and licensing under the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Non-commercial No Derivatives is the most restrictive and only allows the downloading of the original work without any changes, giving credit to the original creator.
Public Domain
Creative Commons also has two ways to designate a work that has no copyright restrictions associated with it.
CC0
CC0 allows a copyright holder to waive any rights under copyright and give her work to the public domain.
Public Domain Mark
This mark identifies works that are free of known copyright restrictions. This mark can be used when copyright has expired on a work.