Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a way (though not the only way) for owners of copyrighted material to, in essence, approve certain types of uses of their work without permission. Creative Commons licensed materials (except those explicitly licensed with a "Public Domain" license) are still copyrighted and the creator of the work still owns that copyright.
The purpose of this licensing is to offer a flexible and efficient mechanism for content creators to allow their materials to be used in certain ways without the burden of the permissions process.
Typically, CC licenses require attribution at a minimum. Copyright holders can choose licenses that allow (or prohibit) commercial uses, declare whether adapting the work is permitted, and to require the user to also use a CC-license on derivative works.
Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians [PDF] by 
Attribution: Much of the information in this section is adapted from Portland CC Library's Copyright Resources guide and is licensed by Portland Community College under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
While working at the College, have you created or adapted openly licensed works to which you would like to apply a Creative Commons license? Have you made sure that you are using information that has been clearly marked as either being in the Public Domain, Creative Commons, or other license that allows you to use it? The information presented in this section will give you the tools needed to make informed decisions regarding creative commons licensing at Pitt Community College.
Before you place a CC license on a work you have created (or adapted), read through the considerations provided by Creative Commons. One of the most important considerations is that of irrevocability. CC licenses are not revocable. Once something has been published under a CC license, licensees may continue using it in accordance with the license terms for the duration of applicable copyright and similar rights. As a licensor, you may stop distributing under the CC license at any time, but anyone who has access to a copy of the material may continue to redistribute it under the CC license terms.
If you are licensing your materials with a Creative Commons license for the purpose of sharing them as Open Educational Resources (OER), the College recommends the CC BY license, which is the attribution-only license, if possible. This license is the most open and has the least possibility of having downstream effects that prevent users from using and adapting your materials. There are, however, many issues at play when choosing a license, and you should make choices based on your particular situation and the licenses applied to any CC licensed works that you are incorporating into your OER. It is strongly advised that you do not choose a No Derivatives (ND) license. This license term prevents downstream users from adapting your work in any way, thus greatly reducing its usefulness as an OER.
Pitt Community College owns the copyright (unless stated otherwise in your work contract) of any work created while employed by the College, per the Intellectual Property section in the Employee Manual. You can apply a CC license to your work, but first you need to notify the College of your intentions.
All you must do is complete a simple online form that will notify the College of your intent. This will allow the College to keep track of the license status of the copyrighted material it owns. You must complete this form before you license material created by you but owned by the College.
You need to clearly mark your work so that others know it is openly available for reuse. Please remember to credit Pitt Community College as the copyright owner in cases where the work is owned by the College. You should also include your name as the creator or author of the work. Where possible, include links to the work itself (if available online), the college homepage, and the specific CC license deed so that others can easily see how they are allowed to use your work.
Example:
"Title of Work" by [Author of work], © 2024 Pitt Community College, is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
Creative Commons at Pitt CC by Angela Davis, Copyright © 2024 Pitt Community College, is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
It is adapted from information provided by Portland CC Library's Copyright Resources guide (CC BY 4.0) and from Creative Commons Frequently Asked Questions (CC BY 4.0).
When you use the CC License Chooser, you get the embed code that will make the license on your webpage machine readable. This means that search engines, software products, and other technologies can more accurately index and find your CC licensed material(s). Plus, the code includes the CC image logo(s) and a link to the license deed that you have chosen.
<p xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"><a property="dct:title" rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://libguides.pittcc.edu/oer">OER Research Guide</a> by <span property="cc:attributionName">Pitt Community College (Angela Davis, PCC Library)</span> is licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1" target="_blank" rel="license noopener noreferrer" style="display:inline-block;">CC BY 4.0<img style="height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;" src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.svg?ref=chooser-v1"><img style="height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;" src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/by.svg?ref=chooser-v1"></a></p>
OER Research Guide by Pitt Community College (Angela Davis, PCC Library) is licensed under CC BY 4.0
OER Research Guide © 2018 by Pitt Community College (Angela Davis, PCC Library) is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
NOTE: These examples are for teaching purposes only.