Selecting a licence for your work

Overview

Creative Commons (CC) licences allow authors to nominate how they would like people to be able to use and reuse their work. Applying a CC licence to a work, signals to others how the copyright owner would like to be attributed if their work is reused.

More information can be found at Creative Commons Australia.

Creative Commons licences

The below table provides information on what each licence means for the author and/or copyright holder, and a generic sample text that can be included in a publication.

It is best practice to include the sample text, below at the beginning of a work, so that the rights being licenced are immediately clear to anyone, wishing to reuse the work. If possible, it is also useful to include a licence statement in the information on the landing page where works are hosted.

To find out which licence you would like to allocate to a work visit the Creative Commons licence chooser.

Licence What this means for the author/copyright holder Sample text for the inclusion in publication

Creative Commons Attribution

(CC BY)

This licence allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon works, even commercially, as long as the creator is credited for the original work. This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licenced materials.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike

(CC BY-SA)

This licence allows others to remix, adapt, and build upon works even for commercial purposes, as long as the creator is credited and any new creations are licensed under the same, identical terms. This licence is often compared to “copyleft” free and open-source software licences. All new works based on the original will carry the same licence, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the licence used by Wikipedia. Therefore, this licence is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licenced projects.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under a CC BY-SA licence.

The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives

(CC BY-ND)

This licence allows others to reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially, however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be given to the creator of the original material.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. If you make any changes to the work, you are not permitted to distribute the modified material.

The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial

(CC BY-NC)

This licence allows others to remix, adapt, and build upon works non-commercially.  Works made from this licence must attribute the creator and cannot be used commercially, however, derivative works do not have to be licensed on the same terms.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. Under this licence, you may not use the material for any commercial purposes.

The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

(CC BY-NC-SA)

This licence allows others to remix, adapt, and build works non-commercially, as long as the creator is credited and derivative works are licenced under the same identical terms as the original work.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. Under this licence, you may not use the material for any commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under a CC BY-NC-SA licence.

The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

(CC BY-NC-ND)

This licence is the most restrictive of these six main licences, only allowing others to download works and share them with others as long as the original creator is credited. Importantly the sharing of the work cannot be done as part of a commercial activity. Adaptations cannot be made to these works.

This [insert item type] is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence, which permits use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. Under this licence, you may not use the material for any commercial purposes. If you make any changes to the work, you are not permitted to distribute the modified material.

The images or other third-party material in this [insert item type] are included under the Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.