Creative Commons

Creative Commons licenses allow copyright holders to grant others specialized permissions to reuse their content without permission or a fee, provided they are properly attributed.

You can reuse content under some Creative Commons licenses.

  • You can use any content under a CC-BY license.
  • You can use any content under a CC BY-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) or a CC BY-Non-Derivative (CC BY-ND) license provided you are not adapting or altering the work. Permission is needed if you are altering the content in any way.
  • Permission is needed to reuse any content under a CC BY Non-Commercial (NC) license.
  • You must fully attribute the work by indicating the author/creator, the title or description of the work, date of the work, and where the work was located (if online). You must also indicate the work has been reused under a CC-BY license and provide a link to the license.
    • For an example of how to cite a Creative Commons-licensed work, see the Citation Examples page.
      • If you have adapted the work in any fashion, you must also indicate how you have adapted the work.
    • Be sure to cite the original source, not where you necessarily found the content. For example, Wikipedia/Wikimedia often reuse Creative Commons content from other sources in which case the original sources should be cited.

When using content under a Creative Commons license, you must keep the following limitations in mind:

  • Failing to properly cite the source puts us in violation of the license and subject to copyright infringement claims. 
  • A work or website that is under a Creative Commons license might include content from a third-party source. Content from these sources is not covered by the Creative Commons license and requires permission.
  • Creative Commons only covers a work's copyright, it does not extend to any privacy or personal rights an individual associated with the work may have.

Additional Concept Framework

  • Creative Commons ("CC") licenses provide copyright holders with standardized licenses, allowing them greater control over how their work is used.
  • There are six Creative Commons licenses available, half allow for commercial use and half do not. 
    • Since we are a commercial publisher, we cannot use content licensed under the non-commercial ("NC") licenses.
    • If the content you wish to use is licensed under an NC license, you must obtain permission to use the content from the right holder. 
  • Below is a snapshot of the license terms:
Licenses          Attribution Required Commercial Use Edits Allowed New Work Requires Same License Use Content Under This License
CC BY X X X   Yes
CC BY-SA X X X X Yes, if not making edits to content - otherwise by permission only
CC BY-ND X X     Yes, if not making edits to content - otherwise by permission only
CC BY-NC X   X   No - By permission only
CC BY-NC-SA X   X X No - By permission only
CC BY-NC-ND X       No - By permission only