Choose a Creative Commons License for your Book
On this page:
Your book will require a Creative Commons licenses which provides a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; while ensuring proper attribution; and allowing others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works. When you are choosing a Creative Commons license, it is important to think carefully about how you want your resource to be used, as different licenses provide different permissions.
Use the Creative Commons License Chooser to select the license you want to use.
Creative Commons License elements
Each Creative Commons License is made up of different elements:
BY – Attribution – Credit must be given to the creator.
SA – Share Alike – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
NC – NonCommercial – Only non-commercial uses of the work are permitted.
ND – No Derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.
Creative Commons License types
CC BY – A CC BY or Attribution license, allows anyone to re-mix, re-use and re-share the work, as long as attribution is provided to the creator.
CC BY-SA – Attribution Share Alike – A CC BY-SA or Share Alike license, allows anyone to re-mix, re-use, and re-share, so long as attribution is provided to the creator and any new work is re-shared freely under the same license. This license permits commercial use.
CC BY-NC – Attribution NonCommercial – The CC BY-NC or Non-Commercial license, allows the work to be re-used and remixed, and re-shared, as long as attribution is provided to the creator and the work is not used for commercial purposes.
CC BY-NC-SA – Attribution NonCommercial Share Alike – The CC BY-NC-SA license allows the work to be re-mixed, re-used, and re-shared so long as attribution is provided to the creator, the work is not used for commercial purposes, and any new work is re-shared freely under the same license.
CC BY-ND – Attribution No Derivatives – A CC BY-ND or Non-Derivative license, allows anyone to re-use and re-share the work, as long as credit is provided to the creator, and no changes are made to the original work. This license permits commercial use.
CC BY-NC-ND – Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives – The CC BY-NC-ND license allows the work to be re-used and re-shared, so long as attribution is provided to the creator, the work is not used for commercial purposes, and no changes are made to the original work.
CC0 – CC0 (CC Zero) is a public dedication tool that means the rights holder has waived all copyright protection rights and placed the work in the public domain. This means the resource can be used for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without the need for attribution.
Some considerations:
- A Share-Alike license (SA) will ensure that any new work incorporating yours must also be made freely available under the same license for others to use and re-mix.
- A Non-Commercial (NC) license will prevent anyone from using your resource for commercial purposes.
- A No-Derivatives (ND) license will significantly limit how your resource can be reused, as this license prevents the resources from being altered in any way. It may also prevent you from being able to adapt your book on another platform or in a different format. There may be good reasons for choosing this license, for example, if the content of your resource could potentially become misleading if it was changed in any way. Please consider carefully before choosing an ND license.
Adapted from:
- Choosing a Creative Commons License for your resource by University of Edinburgh, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- About CC Licenses by Creative Commons, licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.