Offering your work under a Creative Commons licence does not mean giving up your copyright. It means allowing more liberal use of your material, but only on certain conditions.
Each Creative Commons licence comes with the same baseline user rights and restrictions. These allow the material to be copied, distributed and reused, at a minimum in its current form, for non-commercial purposes, and as long as the original creator/s are credited.
The short link for this page is http://creativecommons.org.au/licences.
Licence terms
These baseline rights can be modified by adding the extra licensing terms below. You can mix and match these to create a licence that defines exactly how you want your work to be used. For example, you may want to release your work under an Attribution licence, or you may want to use an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. A full list and description of the Creative Commons licences is provided further down the page.
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| Attribution BY | Noncommercial NC | No Derivative Works ND | Share Alike SA |
| This applies to every Creative Commons work. Whenever a work is copied or redistributed under a Creative Commons licence, the original creator (and any other nominated parties) must be credited and the source linked to. | Lets others copy, distribute, display and perform the work for noncommercial purposes only. | Lets others distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work. They may not adapt or change the work in any way. | Allows others to remix, adapt and build on the work, but only if they distribute the derivative works under the same the licence terms that govern the original work. |
| A licence cannot feature both the Share Alike and No Derivative Works options. The Share Alike requirement applies only to derivative works. |  |
The Licences
When you publish your work using a Creative Commons licence, you can select which of these licence elements suits you. This in turn creates the six core Creative Commons licences listed below. We have listed them starting with the most liberal licence and ending with the most restrictive licence. You can download a printable fact sheet about the licences here.
Attribution
CC BY
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). This is the most accommodating of the licences in terms of what others can do with the work.
Attribution-Share Alike
CC BY-SA
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties) and license any new creations based on the work under the same terms. All new derivative works will carry the same licence, so will also allow commercial use.
In other words, you agree to share your materials with others, if they will share their new works in return. This licence is often compared to the free software licences, known as ‘copyleft.’
Attribution-No Derivative Works
CC BY-ND
This licence allows others to distribute the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as the work is unchanged, and the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties) are credited.
Attribution-Noncommercial
CC BY-NC
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes and they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). They don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
CC BY-NC-SA
This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes, they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties) and they license their derivative works under the same terms.
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives
CC BY-NC-ND
This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licences, allowing redistribution of the work in its current form only. This licence is often called the ‘free advertising’ licence because it allows others to download and share the work as long as they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties), they don’t change the material in any way and they don’t use it commercially.
More Info
Still going over your head? You can find fact sheets, videos and other information tools about Creative Commons, its licences and using licensed material on our Learn More page.
The Creative Commons international site also has a whole range of information, including:
- an explanation of the rights covered by Creative Commons licences in the baseline rights and restrictions section
- examples in their about section
- the think page discusses some things you may want to consider before using the Creative Commons licences.
If you want to apply a CC licence to your work, the Licence Chooser will help you find the licence that is right for you.
Version 2.5 Australia Licences
In June 2010 Creative Commons Australia upgraded the local licences to the most current version being used internationally, version 3.0. The above links are to these licences.
Below are links to the previous versions of the Australia licences (Version 2.5):
