Research Guides: OER: Open Educational Resources: Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licensing

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.

About CC Licenses
Explains the six Creative Commons licenses that are available.
Creative Commons Search
Search for items with creative commons licensing.
Creative Commons: License Chooser
As you answer the questions, the page automatically generates a CC image, text, and code that you can paste into your work.

Learn More

Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians [PDF] by Creative Commons
Publication Date: 2019
The figures are eye-opening: more than 1.6 billion works on 9 million websites are licensed under Creative Commons (CC). These materials constitute an extraordinarily rich repository for teaching, learning, sharing, and creative reuse. Knowing your way around CC will help you make the most of the Open Access (OA) and open educational resources (OER) movements. This book represents the first-ever print complement to the CC Certificate program, providing in-depth coverage of CC licenses, open practices, and the ethos of the Commons.

3 Steps to Openly Licensing Your Work [Google Slides]
Presentation by Amy Hofer for Open Oregon Educational Resources.
CC Wiki: Marking Your Work with a CC License
Examples of how to mark your work with the CC license.
Remixing Open Sources with Conflicting Licenses
How do you deal with conflicting licenses? This article offers advice on how to proceed.

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.

CC Machine Readable Code

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.

Embed Code for a CC BY License:

<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>

Webpage Attribution/Licensing Statement:

OER Research Guide by Pitt Community College (Angela Davis, PCC Library) is licensed under CC BY 4.0 CC (Creative Commons) BY - Attribution

Print Version of Attribution/Licensing Statement:

NOTE: These examples are for teaching purposes only.

CC License Chooser
Follow the steps to select the appropriate license for your work. You will be able to copy and paste code and/or plain text licensing information for your work(s).