Editing Creative Commons license (section)

{{Short description|Copyright license for free use of a work}}
{{About|the Creative Commons licenses|the organization that produced them|Creative Commons}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2020}}

[[File:Cc.logo.circle.svg|thumb|Creative Commons logo]]
[[File:Creative Commons and Commerce.ogg|thumb|thumbtime=18|A video explaining how Creative Commons licenses can be used in conjunction with commercial licensing arrangements]]

A '''Creative Commons''' ('''CC''') '''license''' is one of several [[public copyright license]]s that enable the free distribution of an otherwise [[copyright]]ed "work".{{efn|A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song and its lyrics, or a photograph of almost anything are all examples of "works".}} A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of a given work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shergill |first=Sanjeet |date=2017-05-06 |title=The teacher's guide to Creative Commons licenses |url=https://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/blogs/teachers-guide-creative-commons-licenses |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626111219/https://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/blogs/teachers-guide-creative-commons-licenses |archive-date=June 26, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-15 |website=Open Education Europa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=June 16, 2015 |title=What are Creative Commons licenses? |url=https://www.wur.nl/en/article/What-are-Creative-Commons-licenses.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315133811/https://www.wur.nl/en/article/What-are-Creative-Commons-licenses.htm |archive-date=March 15, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-15 |website=Wageningen University & Research}}</ref><ref name="University of Michigan Library">{{Cite web |title=Creative Commons licenses |url=http://guides.lib.umich.edu/creativecommons/licenses |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121140426/http://guides.lib.umich.edu/creativecommons/licenses |archive-date=November 21, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-15 |website=University of Michigan Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Creative Commons licenses |url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_464806_en.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315133739/https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_464806_en.pdf |archive-date=March 15, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-15 |website=University of Glasgow}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Creative Commons licenses |url=https://en.unesco.org/open-access/creative-commons-licenses |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315134320/https://en.unesco.org/open-access/creative-commons-licenses |archive-date=March 15, 2018 |access-date=2018-03-15 |website=UNESCO}}</ref>

There are several types of Creative Commons licenses. Each license differs by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002, by [[Creative Commons]], a U.S. [[non-profit]] corporation founded in 2001. There have also been five versions of the suite of licenses, numbered 1.0 through 4.0.<ref>{{Cite web |title=License Versions |url=https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630063933/https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |access-date=July 4, 2017 |website=Creative Commons Wiki |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Released in November 2013, the 4.0 license suite is the most current. While the Creative Commons license was originally grounded in the American legal system, there are now several [[Creative Commons jurisdiction ports]] which accommodate international laws.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Creative Commons {{!}} University of Minnesota Libraries |url=https://www.lib.umn.edu/services/copyright/creative-commons |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=www.lib.umn.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-09-07 |title=What Is a Creative Commons License? |url=https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-creative-commons-license/ |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=Copyright Alliance |language=en-US |archive-date=September 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240930152512/https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-creative-commons-license/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In October 2014, the [[Open Knowledge Foundation]] approved the Creative Commons CC&nbsp;BY, CC&nbsp;BY-SA and CC0 licenses as conformant with the "[[Open Definition]]" for content and data.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Open Definition 2.1 |url=http://opendefinition.org/od/2.1/en/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127074917/http://opendefinition.org/od/2.1/en/ |archive-date=January 27, 2017 |access-date=January 25, 2023 |website=Open Definition}}</ref><ref name="Open Definition">{{Cite web |title=Conformant Licenses |url=http://opendefinition.org/licenses/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301222106/http://opendefinition.org/licenses/ |archive-date=March 1, 2016 |access-date=January 25, 2023 |website=Open Definition}}</ref><ref name="Vollmer-2013">{{Cite web |last=Vollmer |first=Timothy |date=2013-12-27 |title=Creative Commons 4.0 BY and BY-SA licenses approved conformant with the Open Definition |url=https://creativecommons.org/2013/12/27/creative-commons-4-0-by-and-by-sa-licenses-approved-conformant-with-the-open-definition/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102501/https://blog.creativecommons.org/2013/12/27/creative-commons-4-0-by-and-by-sa-licenses-approved-conformant-with-the-open-definition/ |archive-date=2016-03-04 |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=Creative Commons |language=en-US}}</ref>