Ask Us: Frequently Asked Questions (Coalinga)

Creative Commons licenses (CC) are one type of open licensing for publication. They were designed to support and protect collaborative works. So works with CC licenses are copyrighted, they just include different rights and powers than traditional copyrights. Which rights and powers depends on which CC license a creator chose. In general, CC licenses allow others to edit, transform, reincorporate, reprint, distribute, and in general build off of the existing work. CC0 licenses, like works in the public domain, have no restrictions on what you can do. CC-BY licenses require that whatever else you do, you give credit to the original author. Other common limitations are that the licensing of all derivative works must be the same as the original (SA), or that the existing work and any derivations of it cannot be sold commercially (NC). The most restrictive clause in CC licenses is Non-Derivatives (ND), meaning that users cannot edit, reincorporate, or transform the work. In practice, ND licenses are more like open access than openly licensed. Read more about Creative Commons licensing here [Website].