Sharing is Caring: Creative Commons

Content on the web is available and seemingly “free” to anyone who can cut and paste. Creative Commons is a way for people who create content to access agreements that grant copyright permissions to users like teachers and students, without the usual red tape of extremely restrictive copyrights, but still retain the credit and the right to control how their work is shared.

Normally, when you create something you automatically own a copyright to your work and have a say in how it is used and who uses it. Creative Commons lets you use a less restrictive copyright, giving some of your copyright to the public. This refined copyright allows creators to share their work in a more collaborative way. Users can make copies, distribute, remix, or incorporate these materials for personal or sometimes commercial purposes, based on the types of Creative Commons license used.

The six different types of Creative Commons licenses are:

Attribution (CC by)

When you see this license, it means you are allowed to do the following (for personal or commercial use) as long as you credit the person or organization responsible for creating the original: distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon work.

Attribution-ShareAlike (CC by SA)

When you see this license, you may do the following (for personal or commercial use) as long as you credit and license what you create under the identical terms of the original: remix, tweak, and build upon. 

Attribution-NoDerivs (CC by ND)

When you see this license, you may redistribute (for personal or commercial use) as long as you credit the creator and distribute it intact and unaltered in any way.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC by NC-SA)

When you see this license, you may do the following (for personal, non- commercial use) as long as you credit and license what you create under the identical terms of the original: remix, tweak, and build work.

Attribution-NonCommercial 
(CC BY-NC)

When you see this license, you may do the following (for personal, non-commercial use) as long as you acknowledge the original creator: remix, tweak, and build work. There is no obligation to license any new products you create from the original on the same terms, so long as you still credit where credit is due.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 
(CC BY-NC-ND)

When you see this license, you may download and share items with others, but you must credit the creators. You may not change items in any way or use them commercially.

Two things I didn't know (not the only two):

1. I didn't know that anything you created was automatically copyrighted.
2. I didn't know that there were so many organizations dedicated to sharing information.

Here's a video explaining the six different types of licenses. If you click on the i in the upper right hand corner, all the credits and information about the video appear. 

"Creative Commons License and how it helps us share digital content" by BrickPress is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Please remember to visit mes Biches!

Ms Karen Lovett

Ms Julie Forbes