What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a system of licensing that sits alongside Copyright Law and allows the legal use and reuse of media. When you see a Creative Commons license, it means that the copyright holder of that work has decided to share their work with you - and with everyone else.
Creative Commons Kiwi from CreativeCommons AotearoaNZ on Vimeo.
Use the tabs to learn more about using Creative Commons licenses and Creative Commons licensed works.
Creative Commons Kiwi from Creative Commons is licenced underCCBY-NC-SA 3.0
Using Creative Commons is pretty simple.
All you need to do is find a Creative Commons work. Make sure the licence on that work allows you to use it the way you want, and then use the work, making sure to attribute the work as fully and correctly as possible. Licence your resulting masterpiece with Creative Commons - if you can and if required to by a ShareAlike licence - and that's it! You've used Creative Commons successfully and legally.
Flip through the other tabs in this box to learn how to find Creative Commons works, what all the CC licences mean., and how to stay legal by attributing the work you find in the right way.
The Creative Commons logo is displayed under fair use
There are six different Creative Commons licences, each with their own limitations and requirements. You can find out more about the licences on the Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand website's licences page.
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as they credit the creator for the original creation.
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially with credit to the creator (all new works must also be non-commercial).
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the creator and license their new creations under the identical terms.
ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creator and license their new creations under the identical terms.
This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the creator.
ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-NO DERIVATIVES
This licence is the most restrictive of the six main licences, only allowing others to download a work and share them as long as they credit the creator. They can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
Remember: ALWAYS make sure before you use a work that you are using it in accordance with the terms of its Creative Commons licence. Otherwise, you are in violation of copyright.
Much of the licence text and images used here is by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand, and is licenced under CC BY 3.0 Attribution. Some has been altered by the Wintec Library for clarity. Some of this material is based on material at www.creativecommons.org which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence.
There is no registration or sign-up for a Creative Commons licence. Any Creative Commons licence you want to apply to a work, you can, as long as you hold the copyright. All you need to do to licence a work under Creative Commons is choose a licence and then publicly list, display, or upload the work along with your chosen Creative Commons licence.
If you're not sure how to do that, or what it might look like, the Creative Commons Wiki has you covered:
The Creative Commons symbol is displayed under fair use.
Changing a licence once you have applied it to a work is tricky, so deciding what licence is right for your work is important.
Happily, Creative Commons is here to help:
There has been much discussion in the online education community about Creative Commons materials licenced for Non-Commerical Use and their use by the wider community of educators - esepcially those who do not work at strictly not-for-profit educational institutions. Wintec falls into this category of institution, so the conversation naturally includes our use here at Wintec of Non-Commercial Creative Commons licenced works.
The Creative Commons Non-Commerical Licence states its usage as:
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
and defines 'commerical use' as:
A commercial use is one primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation.
Because of these definitions, the use of NonCommerial licenced material at for-profit educational insitutes has been questioned. To attempt a closer look at the controversy, Creative Commons undertook and then published a study on their users' interpretation of 'non-commerical' when using the Creative Commons Non-Commercial licence, which you can find linked below.
What all this means for Wintec staff is that, since certain Wintec uses of Creative Commons material may be interpreted as being in line with 'commericial advantage', use of Creative Commons works with a Non-Commerical licence needs to be thoughtful and circumspect.
Err on the side of caution, and remember that we are also not exempt from Copyright and cannot claim Fair Use on not-for-profit educational grounds. Know what Wintec's Copyright restrictions are, and practice responsible use of all copyrighted materials.
Creative Commons projects, partners, and initiatives:
