Source: https://creativecommons.org/faq/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 23:07:37+00:00

Document:
What does “Some Rights Reserved” mean?
Does Creative Commons collect or track material licensed under a CC license?
What do the Creative Commons buttons do?
I love Creative Commons. How can I help?
Which is the latest version of the licenses offered by Creative Commons?
Who gives permission to use material offered under Creative Commons licenses?
What are the international (“unported”) Creative Commons licenses, and why does CC offer “ported” licenses?
Can I include a work licensed with CC BY in a Wikipedia article even though they use a CC BY-SA license?
Can governments and intergovernmental organizations (“IGOs”) use CC licenses?
Can children apply Creative Commons licenses to work they create?
What are the official translations of the CC licenses and CC0?
What is a BY-SA Compatible License?
Why should I use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses?
What if CC licenses have not been ported to my jurisdiction?
Should I choose an international license or a ported license?
Why should I use the license chooser? What if I don’t?
What do the terms and conditions of a CC license apply to?
Can I apply a Creative Commons license to databases?
Could I use a CC license to share my logo or trademark?
If I take a photograph of another work that is in the public domain, can I apply a CC license to my photo?
Can I use CC licenses to license rights other than copyright?
How do Creative Commons licenses affect my moral rights, if at all?
Can I offer material under a CC license that has my trademark on it without also licensing or affecting rights in the trademark?
How are publicity, privacy, and personality rights affected when I apply a CC license?
Can I apply a CC license to low-resolution copies of a licensed work and reserve more rights in high-resolution copies?
Can I use a Creative Commons license if I am a member of a collecting society?
Can I insist on the exact placement of the attribution credit?
Can I change the license terms or conditions?
What do I do if someone tries to place effective technological measures (such as DRM) on my CC-licensed material?
When I release my work under a CC license in one format (e.g., .pdf), can I restrict licensees from changing it to or using it in other formats?
What should I think about before using material offered under a Creative Commons license?
What if there are sui generis database rights that apply to my use of a CC-licensed database?
Where can I find material offered under a CC license?
Are Creative Commons works really free to use?
What should I know about differences between the international licenses and the ported licenses?
Do I always have to comply with the license terms? If not, what are the exceptions?
Do I need to be aware of anything else when providing attribution?
Do I always have to attribute the creator of the licensed material?
Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the licenses?
How do I know if a low-resolution photo and a high-resolution photo are the same work?
Can I reuse an excerpt of a larger work that is licensed with the NoDerivs restriction?
Can I use effective technological measures (such as DRM) when I share CC-licensed material?
Can I share CC-licensed material on file-sharing networks?
What if I received CC-licensed material encumbered with effective technological measures (such as DRM)?
What if I have received CC-licensed material with additional restrictions?
If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use?
If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection?
How can I lose my rights under a Creative Commons license? If that happens, how do I get them back?
How do Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools work technically?
What does it mean that Creative Commons licenses are “machine-readable”?
What is CC REL and why does Creative Commons recommend it?
What does it mean for a search engine to be CC-enabled?
How do I give users of my site the option to use CC licensing like Flickr does?
How can I change or remove the Creative Commons search option built into the Firefox browser?
What do I need to do to get a copyright?
What are sui generis database rights?
What are publicity, personality, and privacy rights?
What are the limits on how CC-licensed works can be used in the development of new technologies, such as training of artificial intelligence software?
But what about privacy laws, rules governing ethical research, and data protection laws?
What attribution obligations exist when CC-licensed images are included in a published dataset? Is linking to the original image or URI required, and if so, is it adequate?
If a for-profit company uses CC-licensed content under a Non Commercial license and releases the work under terms that allow only research purposes, is the NC restriction violated?
If CC SA-licensed content is included in a database, does the entire database have to be licensed under an SA license?
What, if any, remedies, do users have if they dislike how their photos or images have been reused?
These FAQs are designed to provide a better understanding of Creative Commons, our licenses, and our other legal and technical tools. They provide basic information, sometimes about fairly complex topics, and will often link to more detailed information.
Other CC FAQs: CC0 Public Domain Dedication and Public Domain Mark.
“Licensor”, “rights holder”, “owner”, and “creator” may be used interchangeably to refer to the person or entity applying a CC license.
Information about the licenses is primarily made with reference to the 4.0 suite, but earlier license versions are mentioned where they differ.
Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact info@creativecommons.org.
Creative Commons does not provide legal advice. This FAQ is for informational purposes and is not a substitute for legal advice. It may not cover important issues that affect you. You should consult with your own lawyer if you have questions.
Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis. Our vision is to help others realize the full potential of the internet. CC has affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and who raise awareness of our work.
For more information about CC, our main website contains in-depth information about the organization, its staff and board of directors, its history, and its supporters. You can also read CC case studies to learn about some of the inspiring ways CC licenses and tools have been used to share works and support innovative business models. You can find regularly updated information about CC by visiting the blog.
Absolutely not. CC has responded to claims to the contrary. CC licenses are copyright licenses, and depend on the existence of copyright to work. CC licenses are legal tools that creators and other rights holders can use to offer certain usage rights to the public, while reserving other rights. Those who want to make their work available to the public for limited kinds of uses while preserving their copyright may want to consider using CC licenses. Others who want to reserve all of their rights under copyright law should not use CC licenses.
That said, Creative Commons recognizes the need for change in copyright law, and many members of the Creative Commons community are active participants in the copyright reform movement. For more information, see our statement in support of copyright reform.
While CC does provide this informational guidance about its licenses and other tools, this information may not apply to your particular situation, and should never be taken as legal advice.
If you’re looking for legal advice about using CC licenses and other tools, we recommend contacting the Creative Commons affiliate in your jurisdiction. CC affiliates are highly connected to the communities of copyright lawyers in their countries. We also offer a list of lawyers and organizations who have identified themselves as willing to provide information to others about CC licensing issues. However, please note that CC does not provide referral services, and does not endorse or recommend any person on that list.
No, CC does not collect content or track licensed material. However, CC builds technical tools that help the public search for and use works licensed under our licenses and other legal tools, and many others have built such tools as well. CC Search is one tool developed by CC to help the public discover works offered under Creative Commons licenses on the internet via CC-aware search engines and repositories.
The CC buttons are a shorthand way to convey the basic permissions associated with material offered under CC licenses. Creators and owners who apply CC licenses to their material can download and apply those buttons to communicate to users the permissions granted in advance. When the material is offered online, the buttons should usually link out to the human-readable license deeds (which, in turn, link to the license itself).
You may download high resolution versions of the Creative Commons logos and use them in connection with your work or your website, provided you comply with our policies. Among other things, if you use the logos on a website or on your work, you may not alter the logos in any respect—such as by changing the font, the proportions, or the colors. CC’s buttons, name, and corporate logo (the “CC” in a circle) are trademarks of Creative Commons. You cannot use them in ways not permitted by our policies unless you first receive express, written permission. This means, for example, that you cannot (without our permission) print your own buttons and t-shirts using CC logos, although you can purchase them in CC’s store.
Please support CC by making a donation through our support page. Donations can be handled through PayPal or by credit card. You can also support CC by visiting our store.
. You can also participate in CC’s email discussion lists and share feedback and ideas in one of those forums.
If you are a software developer, sysadmin, or have other technical expertise, please join our developer community and help build the tools that build the commons.
Finally, one of the best ways to support CC is by supporting our causes yourself. Follow our blog to find out about current issues where you can help get involved and spread the word, and advocate for free and open licensing in your own communities.
Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, with affiliates all over the world who help ensure our licenses work internationally and raise awareness about our work. Our tools are free, and our reach is wide.
&mldr;we need $ to make it all happen! For more information, please take a look at our Annual Report.
Creative Commons has always relied on the generosity of both individuals and organizations to fund its ongoing operations. It is essential we have the public’s support because it is the creators and users of CC material who make our tools relevant in this digital age. They depend on the tools and services CC provides through their reuse and remix of the rich, open resources available on Wikipedia, Flickr, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Europeana, MIT OpenCourseWare, the Library of Science, Al Jazeera, and YouTube—just to name a few. Many of these people donate $10, $25, or $50 to CC, to help keep it up and running so we can continue to provide our tools and services for free, as a nonprofit organization. The more people who donate to CC, the more independent it will remain.
Creative Commons licenses provide an easy way to manage the copyright terms that attach automatically to all creative material under copyright. Our licenses allow that material to be shared and reused under terms that are flexible and legally sound. Creative Commons offers a core suite of six copyright licenses. Because there is no single “Creative Commons license,” it is important to identify which of the six licenses you are applying to your material, which of the six licenses has been applied to material that you intend to use, and in both cases the specific version.
All of our licenses require that users provide attribution (BY) to the creator when the material is used and shared. Some licensors choose the BY license, which requires attribution to the creator as the only condition to reuse of the material. The other five licenses combine BY with one or more of three additional license elements: NonCommercial (NC), which prohibits commercial use of the material; NoDerivatives (ND), which prohibits the sharing of adaptations of the material; and ShareAlike (SA), which requires adaptations of the material be released under the same license.
CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material. The only categories of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware. You should also not apply Creative Commons licenses to works that are no longer protected by copyright or are otherwise in the public domain. Instead, for those works in the worldwide public domain, we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark.
In November 2013, Creative Commons published the version 4.0 license suite. These licenses are the most up-to-date licenses offered by CC, and are recommended over all prior versions. You can see how the licenses have been improved over time on the license versions page. 4.0 has been drafted to be internationally valid, and will have official translations becoming available after publication.
No. By design, CC licenses do not reduce, limit, or restrict any rights under exceptions and limitations to copyright, such as fair use or fair dealing. If your use of CC-licensed material would otherwise be allowed because of an applicable exception or limitation, you do not need to rely on the CC license or comply with its terms and conditions. This is a fundamental principle of CC licensing.
Our licenses and legal tools are intended for use by anyone who holds copyright in the material. This is often, but not always, the creator.
If you would like to obtain additional permissions to use the work beyond those granted by the license that has been applied, or if you’re not sure if your intended use is permitted by the license, you should contact the rights holder.
Creative Commons licenses are drafted to be enforceable around the world, and have been enforced in court in various jurisdictions. To CC’s knowledge, the licenses have never been held unenforceable or invalid.
CC licenses contain a “severability” clause. This allows a court to eliminate any provision determined to be unenforceable, and enforce the remaining provisions of the license.
One of CC’s goals is ensuring that all of its legal tools work globally, so that anyone anywhere in the world can share their work on globally standard terms. To this end, CC offers a core suite of six international copyright licenses (formerly called the “unported”) that are drafted based largely on various international treaties governing copyright, taking into account as many jurisdiction-specific legal issues as possible. The latest version (4.0) has been drafted with particular attention to the needs of international enforceability.
For version 3.0 and earlier, Creative Commons has also offered ported versions of its six core licenses for many jurisdictions (which usually correspond to countries, but not always). These ported licenses are based on the international license suite but have been modified to reflect local nuances in the expression of legal terms and conditions, drafting protocols, and language. The ported licenses and the international licenses are all intended to be legally effective everywhere. CC expects that few, if any, ports will be necessary for 4.0.
CC recommends that you take advantage of the improvements in the 4.0 suite explained on the license versions page unless there are particular considerations you are aware of that would require a ported license.
Yes. Works licensed under CC BY may be incorporated into works that are licensed under CC BY-SA. For example, you may incorporate a CC BY photograph into a Wikipedia article so long as you keep all copyright notices intact, provide proper attribution, and otherwise comply with the terms of CC BY. Learn more about the licenses.
Yes, anyone may use CC licenses for material they own, including governments and IGOs, and these institutions frequently use CC licenses on their copyrightable material. The reasons for doing so vary, and often include a desire to maximize the impact and utility of works for educational and informational purposes, and to enhance transparency.
Creative Commons licenses have desirable features that make them the preferred choice over custom licenses. CC licenses are standard and interoperable, which means material published by different creators using the same type of CC license can be translated, modified, compiled, and remixed without legal barriers depending on the particular license applied. Creative Commons licenses are also machine-readable, allowing CC-licensed works to be easily discovered via search engines such as Google. These features maximize distribution, reuse, and impact of works published by governments and IGOs.
Though we encourage anyone to use version 4.0, which is internationally valid and may be used by individuals as well as organizations, there is an IGO ported version of 3.0 that IGOs may also use. Read more about how governments and IGOs use and leverage CC licenses and legal tools, considerations for using our licenses, and how they operate in the IGO context.
This issue depends largely on the laws in place where the child lives. In the United States, children can be copyright holders and are entitled to license their works in the same manner as adults. However, they may have the right to disaffirm certain types of legal agreements, including licenses. In many parts of the United States, for example, children have the ability to disaffirm some types of agreements under certain circumstances once they reach the age where they are considered adults within the relevant jurisdiction. We are unaware of any attempt by a licensor to exercise the disaffirmation right with respect to a CC license applied to a work.
Official language translations will be available for the 4.0 licenses and CC0. When you license your own work, you may use or link to the text of any available official translation. When you reuse CC-licensed material, you may comply with the license conditions by referring to any available official translation of the license. These translations are linguistic translations of the English version which adhere as closely as possible to the original text. These translations have been done by our affiliates in accordance with the Legal Code Translation Policy and with the oversight and detailed review of the CC legal team. Note that these are equivalents of the original English; these translations are not jurisdiction ported versions. You may find a list of all available translations here.
A BY-SA Compatible License is a license officially designated by Creative Commons pursuant to the ShareAlike compatibility process. Once deemed a BY-SA Compatible License, you may use the license to publish your contributions to an adaptation of a BY-SA work. To see the list of BY-SA Compatible Licenses, click here. Learn more about ShareAlike compatibility here.
If you are unsure which license best suits your needs, there are plenty of resources to help rights holders choose the right CC license. CC Australia has developed a flow chart that may be useful in helping you settle on the right license for your work. Creative Commons has also compiled a list of examples that demonstrate how various licenses fit into licensors’ overall strategies. You can also read case studies of others who are using CC licenses. The CC community can also respond to questions, and may have already addressed issues you raise. The CC community email discussion lists and discussion archives may be useful resources.
Finally, you may also want to consult with a lawyer to obtain advice on the best license for your needs.
The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses is version 4.0. You should always use the latest version of the Creative Commons licenses in order to take advantage of the many improvements described on the license versions page. In particular, 4.0 is meant to be better suited to international use, and use in many different contexts, including sharing data.
All CC licenses are intended to work worldwide. Unless you have a specific reason to use a ported license, we suggest you consider using one of the international licenses. 4.0 will support official translations of the international license for those who wish to use the licenses in another language.
As of version 4.0, CC is discouraging ported versions, and has placed a hold on new porting projects following its publication until sometime in 2014. At that point, CC will reevaluate the necessity of porting in the future.
We recommend that you use a version 4.0 international license. This is the most up-to-date version of our licenses, drafted after broad consultation with our global network of affiliates, and it has been written to be internationally valid. There are currently no ports of 4.0, and it is planned that few, if any, will be created.
All of the ported licenses are at version 3.0 or earlier, which means licensors using those licenses do not have the benefit of the improvements made in the 4.0 license suite. But even before considering the improvements in 4.0, there are several reasons why the international licenses may be preferable for rights holders, even if the licenses have been ported to their jurisdiction. As an organization, CC itself licenses all of its own content under an international license because, among other reasons, the international licenses are essentially jurisdiction-neutral while remaining effective globally. The neutral nature of the international licenses appeals to many people and organizations, particularly for use in connection with global projects that transcend political borders. Finally, it is important to know that some of the ported licenses contain a choice of law provision, which may be undesirable for your needs.
However, some rights holders still choose a license ported to their local jurisdiction because they believe their needs are not sufficiently met by the international licenses. If the licenses have been ported to your jurisdiction and you feel that the ported licenses better account for some aspect of local legislation, then you may wish to consider a ported license.
You can use our jurisdiction database to compare international licenses and ports on these issues and others, such as whether a ported license contains a choice of law or forum selection clause.
Licensors are not required to use the CC license chooser or provide any information about themselves or their material when applying a CC license to their material. However, using the license chooser enables licensors to take advantage of the “machine readable” layer of CC licenses. Our machine-readable code enhances the discoverability of your work because that code allows software, search engines, and other tools to recognize when something is licensed under a CC license. The code also facilitates attribution: when users click on the CC button placed on your site, they will be linked directly to HTML code that they can cut and paste to provide attribution.
Although CC licenses get attached to tangible works (such as photos and novels), the license terms and conditions apply to the licensor’s copyright in the licensed material. The public is granted “permission to exercise” those rights in any medium or format. It is the expression that is protected by copyright and covered by the licenses, not any particular medium or format in which the expression is manifested. This means, for example, that a CC license applied to a digitized copy of a novel grants the public permission under copyright to use a print version of the same novel on the same terms and conditions (though you may have to purchase the print version from a bookstore).
Yes. CC licenses can be used on databases. In the 4.0 license suite, applicable sui generis database rights are licensed under the same license conditions as copyright. Many governments and others use CC licenses for data and databases.
For more detailed information about how CC licenses apply to data and databases, visit our detailed Data FAQ.
Creative Commons does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark. While a logo or trademark can be covered by copyright laws in addition to trademark laws, the special purposes of trademarks make CC licenses an unsuitable mechanism for sharing them in most cases. Generally, logos and trademarks are used to identify the origin of a product or service, or to indicate that it meets a specific standard or quality. Allowing anyone to reuse or modify your logo or trademark as a matter of copyright could result in your inability to limit use of your logo or trademark selectively to accomplish those purposes. Applying a CC license to your trademarks and logos could even result in a loss of your trademark rights altogether. See below for more about how to license material that includes a trademark or logo.
There are other ways to share your logos and trademarks widely while preserving your trademark rights. Establishing a trademark policy that grants permissions in advance for limited uses is one common alternative. Mozilla, Wikimedia, and Creative Commons have each published policies that accomplish the dual objectives of encouraging reuse and preserving trademark rights.
CC licenses should not be applied to works in the worldwide public domain. All CC licenses are clear that they do not have the effect of placing restrictions on material that would otherwise be unrestricted, and you cannot remove a work from the public domain by applying a CC license to it. If you want to dedicate your own work to the public domain before the expiration of applicable copyright or similar rights, use CC’s legally robust public domain dedication. If a work is already in the worldwide public domain, you should mark it with CC’s Public Domain Mark.
Note that, in some cases, a work may be in the public domain under the copyright laws of some jurisdictions but not others. For example, U.S. government works are in the public domain under the copyright law of the United States, but may be protected by copyright laws in other jurisdictions. A CC license applied to such a work would be effective (and the license restrictions enforceable) in jurisdictions where copyright protection exists, but would not be operative if U.S. copyright law is determined to be the applicable law.
Creators may also apply Creative Commons licenses to material they create that are adapted from public domain works, or to remixed material, databases, or collections that include work in the public domain. However, in each of these instances, the license does not affect parts of the work that are unrestricted by copyright or similar rights. We strongly encourage you to mark the public domain material, so that others know they are also free to use this material without legal restriction.
That depends. You can apply a CC license to your photograph if your photograph constitutes a work of original authorship, a question that varies by jurisdiction. As a general matter, your photograph must involve some creative choices, such as background setting, lighting, angle, or other mark of creativity. In the United States, an exact photographic copy of a public domain work is not subject to copyright because there is no originality (even if there is effort or “sweat” exerted in its creation).
In practice, if your photograph is sufficiently creative to attract copyright protection, people will likely have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce your entire photograph in verbatim form, absent some applicable exception or limitation such as fair use. However, they would not have to comply with the license conditions if they reproduce only those parts of the work in the public domain. This is because your copyright in the adaptation only extends to the material you contributed, not to the underlying work.
CC licenses are copyright licenses, but the latest version of CC licenses also cover certain other rights similar to copyright, including performance, broadcast, and sound recording rights, as well as sui generis database rights. You may apply a 4.0 license to material subject to any of those rights, whether or not the material is also subject to copyright. Note that the scope of prior versions of CC licenses was more limited. You should refer to our license versions page for details.
As a general matter, all CC licenses preserve moral rights to the extent they exist (they do not exist everywhere), but allow uses of the work in ways contemplated by the license that might otherwise violate moral rights. If you apply a 4.0 license to your material, you agree to waive or not assert any moral rights you have, to the limited extent necessary to allow the public to exercise the licensed rights. This is designed to minimize the effect of moral rights on licensees’ ability to use the work, and ensure that the license works internationally as intended. The attribution requirement contained in all of our licenses is intended to satisfy the moral right of attribution, but it must be adhered to whether or not the applicable jurisdiction recognizes moral rights.
Earlier versions of the license are also intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on otherwise-permitted uses, but the language in the licenses differs. Additionally, jurisdiction ports of earlier versions of CC licenses often contain versions of the moral rights language designed to account for moral rights legislation in a particular jurisdiction. If you are applying a ported license to your work, you may wish to review the moral rights language in the particular license.
You can also compare how different jurisdictions have implemented this provision, or browse the license versions page to compare the treatment of this issue across the different versions of the CC licenses.
Yes, you may offer material under a Creative Commons license that includes a trademark indicating the source of the work without affecting rights in the trademark, because trademark rights are not licensed by the CC licenses. However, applying the CC license may create an implied license to use the trademark in connection with the licensed material, although not in ways that require permission under trademark law. To avoid any uncertainty, Creative Commons recommends that licensors who wish to mark material with trademarks or other branding materials give notice to licensors expressly disclaiming application of the license to those elements. This can be done in the copyright notice, but could also be noted on the website where the work is published.
When you apply the latest version (4.0) of a CC license to your material, you also agree to waive or not assert any publicity, privacy, or personality rights that you hold in the material you are licensing, to the limited extent necessary for others to exercise the licensed rights. For example, if you have licensed a photograph of yourself, you may not assert your right of privacy to have the photo removed from further distribution. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) If you do not wish to license these rights in this way, you should not apply a CC license to the material where this is a concern.
If there are any third parties who may have publicity, privacy, or personality rights that apply, those rights are not affected by your application of a CC license, and a reuser must seek permission for relevant uses. If you are aware of any such third party rights in the material you are licensing, we recommend marking the material to give notice to reusers.
You may license your copyright or distribute your work under more than one set of terms. For example, you may publish a photograph on your website, but only distribute high-resolution copies to people who have paid for access. This is a practice CC supports. However, if the low-resolution and high-resolution copies are the same work under applicable copyright law, permission under a CC license is not limited to a particular copy, and someone who receives a copy in high resolution may use it under the terms of the CC license applied to the low-resolution copy.
Note that, although CC strongly discourages the practice, CC cannot prevent licensors from attempting to impose restrictions through separate agreements on uses the license otherwise would allow. In that case, licensees may be contractually restricted from using the high-resolution copy, for example, even if the licensor has placed a CC license on the low-resolution copy.
Creators and other rights holders may wish to check with their collecting society before applying a CC license to their material. Many rights holders who are members of a collecting society can waive the right to collect royalties for uses allowed under the license, but only to the extent their societies allow.
Collecting societies in several countries including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, and the Netherlands take an assignment of rights from creators in present and future works and manage them, so that the societies effectively become the owner of these rights. (In France it is called a “mandate” of rights but has similar practical effect.) Creators in these jurisdictions who belong to collecting societies may not be able to license their material under CC licenses because the collecting societies own the necessary rights, not the creators. CC is working with several collecting societies and running pilot programs that allow creators to use CC licenses in some circumstances.
If you are already a member of a collecting society and want to use CC licenses, you are welcome to encourage your collecting society to give you the option of Creative Commons licensing.
No. CC licenses allow for flexibility in the way credit is provided depending on the medium, means, and context in which a licensee is redistributing licensed material. For example, providing attribution to the creator when using licensed material in a blog post may be different than doing so in a video remix. This flexibility facilitates compliance by licensees and reduces uncertainty about different types of reuse—minimizing the risk that overly onerous and inflexible attribution requirements are simply disregarded.
Yes—but if you change the terms and conditions of any Creative Commons license, you must no longer call, label, or describe the license as a “Creative Commons” or “CC” license, nor can you use the Creative Commons logos, buttons, or other trademarks in connection with the modified license or your materials. Keep in mind that altering terms and conditions is distinct from waiving existing conditions or granting additional permissions than those in the licenses. Licensors may always do so, and many choose to do so using the CC+ protocol to readily signal the waiver or additional permission on the CC license deed.
Yes. You may always choose to waive some license terms or conditions. Material licensed under a CC license but with additional permissions granted or conditions waived may be compatibly licensed with other material under the same license. Our CC+ protocol provides a mechanism for facilitating that grant or waiver.
First, all CC licenses prohibit using the attribution requirement to suggest that the licensor endorses or supports a particular use. Second, licensors may waive the attribution requirement, choosing not to be identified as the licensor, if they wish. Third, if the licensor does not like how the material has been modified or used, CC licenses require that the licensee remove the attribution information upon request. (In 3.0 and earlier, this is only a requirement for adaptations and collections; in 4.0, this also applies to the unmodified work.) Finally, anyone modifying licensed material must indicate that the original has been modified. This ensures that changes made to the original material–whether or not the licensor approves of them–are not attributed back to the licensor.
The use of any effective technical protection measures (such as digital rights management or “DRM”) by licensees to prevent others from exercising the licensed rights is prohibited.
Not all kinds of encryption or access limitations are prohibited by the licenses. For example, sending content via email and encrypting it with the recipient’s public key does not restrict use of the work by the recipient. Likewise, limiting recipients to a particular set of users (for example, by requiring a username and password to enter a site) does not restrict further use of the content by the recipients. In these examples, these things do not prevent the recipient from exercising all of the rights granted by the license, including the right to redistribute it further.
If someone is applying effective technological measures to your CC-licensed material that do restrict exercise of the licensed rights (such as applying DRM that restricts copying), this is a violation of the license terms unless you have chosen to grant this permission separately.
No. CC licenses grant permission to use the licensed material in any media or format regardless of the format in which it has been made available. This is true even if you have applied a NoDerivatives license to your work. Once a CC license is applied to a work in one format or medium, a licensee may use the same work in any other format or medium without violating the licensor’s copyright.
In the somewhat limited circumstances where sui generis database rights apply to your use, special conditions apply and there are more specific considerations you should be aware of. Under 4.0, sui generis database rights are licensed alongside copyright, but the treatment in earlier versions of the license varies. A fuller explanation of these variations and related considerations is available in the Data FAQ.
If you are looking for material offered under a Creative Commons license, CC Search is a good starting point. There is also a directory of organizations and individuals who use CC licenses. Some media sites, such as Flickr, have search filters for material licensed using CC’s licenses.
Be sure to confirm that the material you want to use is actually under a CC license, as search results may sometimes be misleading.
Yes. While many if not most CC-licensed works are available at no cost, some licensors charge for initial access to CC-licensed works—for example, by publishing CC-licensed content only to subscribers, or by charging for downloads. However, even if you have paid an access charge, once you have a copy of CC-licensed material, you may make any further uses permitted by the license without paying licensing fees.
As a licensee, you should always read and understand the relevant license’s legal code before using CC-licensed material, particularly if you are using material that is licensed using a ported license with which you are unfamiliar. Our porting process involved adapting the international licenses to the legal framework of different jurisdictions, and in that process slight adjustments may have been made that you should make yourself aware of in advance of using the material. You can find more information about the ported licenses in the Jurisdiction Database.
There are currently no ported versions of 4.0, and we expect there will be few, if any, in the future. All official translations of the 4.0 international licenses are equivalent: you may substitute one for another depending on your preferred language.
However, the ported versions of 3.0 and earlier sometimes contain small differences from the international license depending on the ways in which they have been adapted to their jurisdictions. For example, a handful of the ported licenses contain provisions specifying which laws will apply in the event the licensor chooses to enforce the license, and a few of the ported licenses contain forum selection clauses.
You need to comply with the license terms if what you are doing would otherwise require permission from the rights holder. If your use would not require permission from the rights holder because it falls under an exception or limitation, such as fair use, or because the material has come into the public domain, the license does not apply, and you do not need to comply with its terms and conditions. Additionally, if you are using an excerpt small enough to be uncopyrightable, the license does not apply to your use, and you do not need to comply with its terms.
However, if you are using excerpts of CC-licensed material which individually are minimal and do not require license compliance, but together make up a significant copyrightable chunk, you must comply with the license terms. For example, if you quote many individual lines from a poem across several sections of a blog post, and your use is not a fair use, you must comply with the license even though no individual line would have been a substantial enough portion of the work to require this.
Yes. You need to be careful not to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or connection with the licensor or attribution party without their permission. Wrongfully implying that a creator, publisher, or anyone else endorses you or your use of a work may be unlawful. Creative Commons makes the obligation not to imply endorsement explicit in its licenses. In addition, if the licensor of a work requests that you remove the identifying credit, you must do so to the extent practical.
Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation.
You must attribute the creator when you provide material to the public by any means that is restricted by copyright or similar rights. If you are using the material personally but are not making it or any adaptations of it available to others, you do not have to attribute the licensor. Similarly, if you are only distributing the material or adaptations of it within your company or organization, you do not have to comply with the attribution requirement. Learn more about when compliance with the license is not required.
As with most copyright questions, it will depend on applicable law. Generally, to be different works under copyright law, there must be expressive or original choices made that make one work a separate and distinct work from another. The determination depends on the standards for copyright in the relevant jurisdiction.
Under U.S. copyright law, for example, mechanical reproduction of a work into a different format is unlikely to create a separate, new work. Consequently, digitally enhancing or changing the format of a work absent some originality, such as expressive choices made in the enhancement or encoding, will not likely create a separate work for copyright purposes. The creative bar is low, but it is not non-existent. Accordingly, in some jurisdictions releasing a photograph under a CC license will give the public permission to reuse the photograph in a different resolution.
The NoDerivs licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from creating adaptations. What constitutes an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, varies slightly based on the law of the relevant jurisdiction.
Incorporating an unaltered excerpt from an ND-licensed work into a larger work only creates an adaptation if the larger work can be said to be built upon and derived from the work from which the excerpt was taken. Generally, no derivative work is made of the original from which the excerpt was taken when the excerpt is used to illuminate an idea or provide an example in another larger work. Instead, only the reproduction right of the original copyright holder is being exercised by person reusing the excerpt. All CC licenses grant the right to reproduce a CC-licensed work for noncommercial purposes (at a minimum). For example, a person could make copies of one chapter of an ND-licensed book and not be in violation of the license so long as other conditions of the license are met.
There are exceptions to that general rule, however, when the excerpts are combined with other material in a way that creates some new version of the original from which the excerpt is taken. For example, if a portion of a song was used as part of a new song, that may rise to the level of creating an adaptation of the original song, even though only a portion of it was used and even if that portion was used as-is.
No. When you receive material under a Creative Commons license, you may not place additional terms and conditions on the reuse of the work. This includes using effective technological measures (ETMs) that would restrict a licensee’s ability to exercise the licensed rights.
A technological measure is considered an ETM if circumventing it carries penalties under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, or similar international agreements. Generally, this means that the anti-circumvention laws of various jurisdictions would cover attempts to break it.
For example, if you remix a CC-licensed song, and you wish to share it on a music site that places digital copy-restriction on all uploaded files, you may not do this without express permission from the licensor. However, if you upload that same file to your own site or any other site that does not apply DRM to the file, and a listener chooses to stream it through an app that applies DRM, you have not violated the license.
Note that merely converting material into a different format that is difficult to access or is only available for certain platforms does not violate the restriction; you may do this without violating the license terms.
Yes. All CC licenses allow redistribution of the unmodified material by any means, including distribution via file-sharing networks. Note that file-trading is expressly considered to be noncommercial for purposes of compliance with the NC licenses. Barter of NC-licensed material for other items of value is not permitted.
If you have received material under a CC license that is encumbered with effective technological measures (such as digital rights management or DRM), you may or may not be permitted to break it, depending on the circumstances. By releasing material under a CC license, the licensor agrees not to assert any rights she may have to prevent the circumvention of effective technological measures. (Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, this is implied but not explicit.) However, if she has uploaded it to a site or other distribution channel that itself applies such measures, that site may have the right to prevent you from breaking them, even though the licensor herself cannot do so.
Note that anti-circumvention laws can impose criminal liability in some jurisdictions.
Note on terminology: throughout these FAQs, we use the term “remix” interchangeably with “adapt.” Both are designed to mean doing something that constitutes an adaptation under copyright law.
The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies. See below for details on how remixes may be licensed.
If you make adaptations of material under a CC license (i.e. “remix”), the original CC license always applies to the material you are adapting even once adapted. The license you may choose for your own contribution (called your “adapter’s license”) depends on which license applies to the original material. Recipients of the adaptation must comply with both the CC license on the original and your adapter’s license.
When remixing BY or BY-NC material, it is generally recommended that your adapter’s license include at least the same license elements as the license applied to the original material. This eases reuse for downstream users because they are able to satisfy both licenses by complying with the adapter’s license. For example, if you adapt material licensed under BY-NC, your adapter’s license should also contain the NC restriction. See the chart below for more details.
In general, when remixing ShareAlike content, your adapter’s license must be the same license as the license on the material you are adapting. All licenses after version 1.0 also allow you to license your contributions under a later version of the same license, and some also allow ported licenses. (See the license versions page for details.) If you wish to adapt material under BY-SA or BY-NC-SA and release your contributions under a non-CC license, you should visit the Compatibility page to see which options are allowed.
The chart below details the CC license(s) you may use as your adapter’s license. When creating an adaptation of material under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license your contributions to the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. CC does not recommend using a license if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the terms of the license. If you do, you should take additional care to mark the adaptation as involving multiple copyrights under different terms so that downstream users are aware of their obligations to comply with the licenses from all rights holders. Dark gray boxes indicate those licenses that you may not use as your adapter’s license.
PD = Dedicated to or marked as being in the public domain via one of our public domain tools, or other public domain material; adaptations of materials in the public domain may be built upon and licensed by the creator under any license terms desired.
All Creative Commons licenses (including the version 4.0 licenses) allow licensed material to be included in collections such as anthologies, encyclopedias, and broadcasts. You may choose a license for the collection, however this does not change the license applicable to the original material.
When you include CC-licensed content in a collection, you still must adhere to the license conditions governing your use of the material incorporated. For example, material under any of the Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses cannot be used commercially. The table below indicates what type of CC-licensed works you may incorporate into collections licensed for commercial and noncommercial uses.
All of the CC licenses terminate if you fail to follow the license conditions. If this happens, you no longer have a license to use the material.
In the 4.0 licenses, your rights under the license are automatically reinstated if you correct this failure within 30 days of discovering the violation (either on your own or because the licensor or someone else has told you). Under the 3.0 and earlier licenses, there is no automatic reinstatement.
If you have lost your rights under a CC license and are not entitled to automatic reinstatement, you may regain your rights under the license if the licensor expressly grants you permission. You cannot simply re-download the material to get a new license.
Note that you may still be liable for damages for copyright infringement for the period where you were not in compliance with the license.
The Creative Commons licenses have three layers, as does the CC0 public domain dedication: the human-readable deed, the lawyer-readable legal code, and the machine-readable metadata. The Public Domain Mark is not legally operative, and so has only two layers: the human-readable mark and machine-readable metadata.
When material is licensed using any of the CC licenses or tools, it is highly recommended that a CC button, text, or other marker somehow accompany it. There are many possible modes for marking. For our licenses, people generally use the CC license chooser to generate HTML code that can be pasted into the webpage where the licensed material is published. CC0 and the Public Domain Mark have a separate chooser. Many platforms and web services such as Flickr and Drupal support CC licensing directly, allowing you to select an appropriate license. The service then properly marks the work for you.
Including a visual indicator (some combination of text and images) that the work is licensed with one of the CC licenses.
Clearly indicating what material is covered under the CC license, especially if it’s presented alongside non-licensed materials.
Including a link to the human-readable deed (which itself contains a link to the legal code).
Embedding machine-readable metadata in the code of the license indicator or code of the licensed page.
See the marking page for more details.
Creative Commons has specified CC REL as a way to associate machine-readable licensing metadata with objects offered under CC licenses.
Before Creative Commons developed this vocabulary, it was difficult for a machine to ascertain whether an object was marked with a CC license. There was also no standard, predictable place to house metadata about that license (for example, the source URL of the work or the required mode of attribution).
Machine-readable metadata based on well-accepted metadata standards creates a platform upon which new services and applications can be built. Software and services can detect CC licenses and the details of that license, as described by the metadata. For example, on many websites and search engines such as Google and Flickr, you can run filtered searches for works offered under specific CC licenses. In addition, CC license deeds can automatically create copy-and-paste attribution code so users may easily comply with the BY condition of the licenses. When you click on a CC license or button from a page with license metadata, you get copy-and-paste attribution HTML within that license deed page. That HTML is based on available RDFa metadata in the original material.
All HTML provided by the CC license chooser is automatically annotated with metadata in RDFa format.
Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) renders information about licenses and works machine-readable through standards that define the semantic web. Creative Commons wants to make it easy for creators and scientists to build upon the works of others when they choose; licensing your work for reuse and &filig;nding properly licensed works to reuse should be easy. CC recommends that you mark your licensed works with CC REL. The Creative Commons license chooser provides HTML annotated with CC REL, while the Creative Commons deeds recognize CC REL on web pages with works offered under a CC license, and use this metadata to enhance the deed for properly marked-up works, e.g., by providing copy and paste HTML that includes work attribution.
For more background information on CC REL, please refer to this paper.
Some search engines (like Google) allow people to filter their search results by usage rights so that you can limit your search results according to the particular CC license you seek. For example, if you are looking for a photo to adapt, you can filter your search to return photos that have a CC license that permits creation of adaptations. You can generally find this search feature on the advanced search page of your selected search engine. You can also use CC Search, which offers a convenient interface to search and a list of those content providers that support searches for content based on usage rights.
Please note, however, that you should always double check to make sure that the work you locate through a search is licensed as you wish.
Creative Commons provides tools for integrating license selection with your site. You can find an overview at the Web Integration article on the CC wiki. The Partner Interface is a good way to get started and will always have the most up-to-date license versions and translations. However, there is also an API available if you want more control.
Mozilla has included the Creative Commons search function in many versions of Firefox along with search options for Google, Amazon, and other popular sites. Please take a look at the Firefox article on the CC wiki for an explanation of how to change these features.
If you want to add or remove a particular search option, click on the logo in the search box (for example, the CC logo or the Google logo). This will open the pull down menu, which will allow you to select different search providers. If you choose “Manage Search Engines,” you will be able to add or remove search engines. You can also alter the order in which the search providers appear on the pull down menu.
No. CC licenses are a form of rights expression, not rights management. CC provides tools to make it easier for creators and owners to say which rights they reserve and permissions they grant. This is different from digital rights management (or “DRM”), which uses technological protection measures to prevent people from using the work in a way that the owner has not permitted.
While licensors may apply effective technological measures (ETMs) to their own materials, the licensor provides a limited permission to circumvent these measures: “The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures.” Note that this only applies to effective technological measures applied by licensors themselves: third parties such as distribution platforms may still apply ETMs if the licensor uploads there, and the license is not able to grant you permission to circumvent it.
Copyright law grants exclusive rights to creators of original works of authorship. National laws usually extend protections to such works automatically once fixed in a tangible medium, prohibiting the making of copies without the rights holder’s permission, among other things. On the internet, even the most basic activities involve making copies of copyrighted content. As content is increasingly uploaded, downloaded, and shared online, copyright law is becoming more relevant to more people than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, infringing copyrights—even unintentionally or unknowingly—can lead to liability. Successful navigation of the internet requires some understanding of copyright law.
The public domain of copyright refers to the aggregate of those works that are not restricted by copyright within a given jurisdiction. A work may be part of the public domain because the applicable term of copyright has expired, because the rights holder surrendered copyright in the work with a tool like CC0, or because the work did not meet the applicable standards for copyrightability.
Because the public domain depends on the copyright laws in force within a particular territory, sometimes a work may be considered “in the public domain” of one jurisdiction, but not in another. For example, U.S. government works are automatically in the public domain under U.S. copyright law, but might be restricted by copyright in other countries.
The Public Domain Manifesto, the University Libraries page, and the CC0 FAQs all contain additional information about the public domain.
Copyright in most jurisdictions attaches automatically without need for any formality once a creative work is fixed in tangible form (i.e. the minute you put pen to paper, take a photo, or hit the “save” button on your computer).
In some jurisdictions, creators may be required to register with a national agency in order to enforce copyright in court. If you would like more information, please consult the Berne Convention or your jurisdiction’s copyright law.
Although you do not have to apply a copyright notice for your work to be protected, it may be a useful tool to clearly signal to people that the work is yours. It also tells the public who to contact about the work.
In order for an adaptation to be protected by copyright, most national laws require the creator of the adaptation to add original expression to the pre-existing work. However, there is no international standard for originality, and the definition differs depending on the jurisdiction. Civil law jurisdictions (such as Germany and France) tend to require that the work contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality. Common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. or Canada), on the other hand, tend to have a lower threshold for originality, requiring only a minimal level of creativity and “independent conception.” Some countries approach originality completely differently. For example, Brazil’s copyright code protects all works of the mind that do not fall within the list of works that are expressly defined in the statue as “unprotected works.” Consult your jurisdiction’s copyright law for more information.
Copyright laws in many jurisdictions around the world grant creators “moral rights” in addition to the economic or commercial right to exploit their creative works. Moral rights protect the personal and reputational value of a work for its creator. Moral rights differ by country, and can include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and/or the right to the integrity of the work. The moral right of integrity may provide creators with a source for redress if an adaptation represents derogatory treatment of their work, typically defined as “distortion or mutilation” of the work or treatment that is “prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author.” Not all jurisdictions provide for moral rights.
The CC licenses are intended to minimize the effect of moral rights on a licensee’s ability to use licensed material; however, in some jurisdictions, these rights may still have an effect. CC offers some additional information on how CC licenses may affect your moral rights.
Copyright provides an incentive to create works by providing exclusive rights to creators. However, the distribution or exploitation of a work often involves more than just the creator. For example, if someone writes a song, someone else may perform the song, and another may produce the recording of the song. Some jurisdictions extend copyright to the contributions made by these persons; other jurisdictions extend such exclusive rights in the form of neighboring rights. Neighboring rights may include performers’ rights or broadcasters’ rights, among others. The Rome Convention sets forth some guidelines on the scope of neighboring rights. Not all jurisdictions recognize neighboring rights.
Sui generis database rights grant qualifying database makers the right to prohibit the extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of a database. The rights are granted to database makers that make a substantial investment of time and resources to create the database. Sui generis database rights are primarily enacted within the European Union and a handful of other jurisdictions.
Collecting societies are copyright management organizations. Some examples of collecting societies include ASCAP and BMI (United States), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands), PRS (United Kingdom), and APRA (Australia). These societies license works on behalf of their owners and process royalty payments from parties using the copyrighted works.
CC offers additional information on how collecting societies might affect your rights and your ability to apply CC licenses to your work. CC has several pilots underway with collecting societies that have chosen to allow their members to use CC licenses on a limited basis.
These terms are used differently in different jurisdictions. Generally speaking, these rights allow individuals to control the use of their voice, image, likeness, or other identifiable aspect of their identity, especially for purposes of commercial exploitation. Similarly, in some jurisdictions these rights allow people to restrict others’ ability to publish information about them without their permission. Whether and to what extent these rights exist, and if so, how they are labeled, varies depending on the jurisdiction.
Creative Commons licenses have a limited effect on these rights where the licensor holds them. Where the licensor has publicity, personality, or privacy rights that may affect your ability to use the material as the license intends, the licensor agrees to waive or not assert those rights. However, any such rights not held by the licensor are not affected and may still affect your desired use of a licensed work. If you have created a work or wish to use a work that might in some way implicate these rights, you may need to obtain permission from the individuals whose rights may be affected.
Yes, CC licenses can be used to license databases. The most recent version (4.0) may be used to license databases subject to copyright and, where applicable, sui generis database rights. Sui generis database rights prevent copying and reusing of substantial parts of a database (including frequent extraction of insubstantial parts). However unlike copyright, database rights protect the maker’s investment, not originality.
Database providers should also consider carefully what elements of the database she wants covered by the CC legal tool and identify those elements in a manner that reusers will see and understand. Please see our [marking page]https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Marking_your_work_with_a_CC_license “wikilink”) for more information on how to clearly distinguish unlicensed content.
In the CC version 3.0 licenses, the legal treatment of sui generis database rights varies, but the practical result is always the same: compliance with the license restrictions and conditions is not required where sui generis database rights–but not copyright–are implicated. This means that if someone extracts a substantial portion of a CC-licensed database and uses it in a way that does not implicate copyright (e.g., by rearranging purely factual data), the license does not require her to attribute the licensor or comply with any other restrictions or conditions, even if the database is protected by sui generis database rights.
The database model refers to how a database is structured and organized, including database tables and table indexes. The selection, coordination, and arrangement of the database is subject to copyright if it is sufficiently original. The originality threshold is fairly low in many jurisdictions. For example, while courts in the United States have held that an alphabetical telephone directory was insufficiently original to merit copyright protection, an organized directory of Chinese-American businesses in a particular area did.1 These determinations are very fact-specific (no pun intended) and vary by jurisdiction.
In contrast to copyright, sui generis database rights are designed to protect a maker’s substantial investment in a database. In particular, the right prevents the unauthorized extraction and reuse of a substantial portion of the contents.
The licenses grant permission for reuse in any situation that requires permission under copyright. There are many ways in which CC-licensed work works and even all rights reserved works can be reused without permission. This includes uses that are fair uses, for example.
If someone uses a CC-licensed work with any new or developing technology, and if copyright permission is required, then the CC license allows that use without the need to seek permission from the copyright owner so long as the license conditions are respected. This is one of the enduring qualities of our licenses — they have been carefully designed to work with all new technologies where copyright comes into play. No special or explicit permission regarding new technologies from a copyright perspective is required.
CC’s copyright licenses are not universal policy tools. Copyright is the primary obstacle to reuse that our licenses solve, but there are many other issues related to the reuse of content that our licenses do not address and that reusers should be aware of. These can include privacy and rules governing ethical research and the collection or use of data, which have to be addressed and respected separate and apart from the copyright issues that CC licenses cover.
It depends. First, keep in mind that CC licenses never limit uses that copyright doesn’t control. For example, as a general matter text and data mining in the United States is considered a fair use and does not require permission under copyright. This means that reusers engaged in text and data mining do not have to adhere to the marking and attribution requirements in our licenses for that activity even though we strongly recommend they do so anyway. A second example is linking. In some countries, linking to copyrighted content doesn’t require permission under copyright law, which means the CC license obligations do not come into play even though the linked content is CC-licensed.
Where a CC-licensed work is distributed as part of a database or dataset, and assuming copyright (or in the European Union, copyright or sui generis database rights) is triggered, then the license conditions must be respected. This means providing the required attribution information in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances. Our licenses allow for some flexibility, and in some cases that may be as simple as providing a link to the website where the relevant attribution information is provided. Visit our marking practices page for more information.
This depends on whether any of the uses made of the works by the company, whether for profit or non profit, are primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. This is hard to know without having all of the facts about how a work was used, whether internally by the company for its own purposes or how the work was distributed for further use. Visit our NC page for more information about what constitutes commercial and non commercial uses of works.
CC licenses never require a reuser of a CC-licensed work to make the original work or resulting works (collections, derivatives, etc.) publicly available. There are lots of private reuses of works that are permitted by CC’s licenses that do not require compliance with their terms. Regarding ShareAlike, the condition only applies if a work is modified and if the work is shared publicly. In the situation where a reuser created a dataset of photos and made it publicly available, and assuming copyright permission is required, then what is released is likely a collection or compilation of pre-existing works. CC licenses do not require the collection or the compilation itself to be made available under an SA license, even though each individual work is still licensed individually under an SA license and if they were modified by the distributor the modified photo would need to be licensed under the same terms. For example, were Creative Commons to compile photographs from a photo sharing website under a BY-SA 2.0 license and create a database that it then publicly distributed, CC could license the collection as a whole under a BY license, but the photographs would continue to be licensed under BY-SA 2.0.
Several remedies are potentially available. Some may be available if the CC license terms have been violated, and others may be available through other, separate avenues because they involve other laws or regulations that the CC licenses do not cover. It’s important to remember, however, that absent a violation of the license the permissions granted under the license remain in place and cannot be revoked.
Under the CC licenses, even if a license condition has not been violated licensors can ask that attribution to them be removed so they can distance themselves from the reuse.
For violations of a CC license term where the license was required (not a fair use, etc.) then you may have a claim for copyright infringement. Fortunately, in the CC community most license violations are handled amicably without resorting to the courts.
For claims involving laws and regulations other than copyright, recourse may be available depending on your local laws.
An important starting point for any would-be sharer of content under a CC license is to educate yourself in advance about how they work and what rights they do and do not cover. We have many FAQs on our website. We also provide human-readable deeds with links to the full text of our licenses. Additionally, all of our licenses highlight at the beginning many considerations that licensors should have in mind before they license, and considerations for reusers of works before they do so in order to avoid inadvertent violations.

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