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Creative Commons Licenses

A guide to open licenses and creating open educational resources (OER) with those licenses

What Are Creative Commons (CC) Licenses?

Overview of CC Licenses

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Creative Commons (CC) licenses comprise six different licenses that rightsholders can add to their copyrighted works so others can use those works. The licenses permit reuse, transformation (e.g., revising and remixing), and redistribution. All six licenses require source attribution. 

The following infographic provides an overview of the six CC licenses. 

Resources

Image: Creative Commons Licenses from Open Textbooks and Resources for Faculty by George Washington University Libraries is licensed under CC BY.