The Creative Commons License
The Creative Commons organization was created in 2001 in the Unites States of America by a group of specialists of Internet law and copyright. It is now established in 40 countries. The Canadian version of Creative Commons Licenses was proposed in 2003. It offers an alternative to copyright standards, one which permits the sharing of content under certain conditions.What is it?
The Creative Commons organization offers authors ways to share their work by indicating, through the use of a logo, the conditions under which content can be used. Thus, an author permits in advance certain uses to the public under his/her own conditions.
The Creative Commons licenses enables the legal classification of works such as videos, music, texts or images in a relatively broad manner on the Internet.
For whom?
Creative Commons licenses are suitable for authors who wish to decide on the diffusion of their works for non-commercial purposes to support creation as a whole.
How do the licenses work?
The author/user relationship is simplified as much as possible: Creative Commons licenses define the conditions under which a work may be used by a series of pictograms that define the parameters of use. According to the pictograms accompanying a work, a user knows which uses of the aforementioned work have been permitted by the creator.
In fact, the consent to a use by an author under a Creative Commons license is equivalent to permitting the use of a work under specific conditions. Since not all authors have the same demands concerning the management of their rights, it is possible for them to adjust the specifications that make up a license.
The author can combine the following four conditions to his/her discretion:
Attribution (By): This logo requires the new user of the work to quote the name of the original author.
Non-Commercial Use (Non-commercial, NC): This logo indicates that the work cannot be used in any way for commercial purposes.
Non-Derivative Work (Non-derivative, ND): This logo indicates that the original content may not be altered, transformed or used as a basis for new content.
Share Alike (Share-alike, SA): This logo indicates that the original content may be altered, transformed or used as a basis for new content so long as the new content is distributed under the same license conditions as the original content.
In total, six different licenses are available to authors:
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Attribution preserved only |
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Attribution and commercial rights preserved |
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Attribution and integrity of the work preserved |
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Attribution and license preserved |
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Attribution, commercial rights, integrity of the work preserved |
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Attribution, commercial rights and license preserved |