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Creative commons FAQ

Introduction

All material, except for logos of organisations, on YOURCE.net is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence. This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don´t have to licence their derivative works on the same terms. The terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence are:
Attribution: you must attribute the author and/or licensor in the manner they require NonCommercial: you may not use the work in a manner primarily directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation
Note that NonCommercial means that you do not receive the commercial rights via the Creative Commons licence. You can always approach the licensor directly to see if they will separately licence you the commercial rights.
In general, Creative Commons licences give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights; such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work.
Before uploading any material to YOURCE.net or post anything on YOURCE.net blogs, you need to make sure you have the authority to apply the Creative Commons licence to it. If you are the creator of the work, then you are probably the owner of copyright and so can licence the work how you wish. If you are not the creator, you need to make sure that the person who owns the copyright in the work is happy to have the work made available under a Creative Commons licence.

Why this licence?

The goal of YOURCE is to provide a community where individuals and organisations worldwide can create and freely share knowledge and information. The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial licence that every user must agree to enables the content to be reusable as possible. All the content within YOURCE is accessible to anyone without restriction and any author can use that content, share it with others, or create a derivative work that is customized and personalized for their context. The licence also reduces everyone´s risk, because it clarifies what the legal uses of the materials are. Without a licence, everyone is forced to assume that the full protection of copyright law applies to your work, even if you intend to share it, or wanted it to be in the public domain. The licence makes clear to lawyers and to other readers that this is your intention.

How can I use works from YOURCE.net?

If you come across a work that says it is made available under a Creative Commons licence, you are authorized by the licensor to use it consistent with those licence terms. You should satisfy yourself that the scope of the licence covers your intended uses. The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence requires that you attribute the author, licensor and/or any other parties specified by the author/licensor.
The proper way of accrediting your use of a work when you´re making a verbatim use is: (1) to keep intact any copyright notices for the Work; (2) credit the author, licensor and/or other parties (such as a wiki or journal) in the manner they specify; (3) the title of the Work; and (4) the Uniform Resource Identifier for the work if specified by the author and/or licensor. You also need to provide the Uniform Resource Locator for the Creative Commons licence that applies to the work, together with each copy of the work that you make available. If you are making a derivative use of a work, in addition to the above, you need to identify that your work is a derivative work, ie. ¨This is a Finnish translation of the [original work] by [author]¨ or ¨Screenplay based on [original work] by [author]¨.

Before putting works on yource.net

Make sure your work falls within the Creative Commons licence

Creative Commons licences apply to works that are protected by copyright. Generally, works that are protected by copyright are: books, scripts, websites, lesson plans, blogs and any other forms of writings; photographs and other visual images; films, video games and other visual materials; musical compositions, sound recordings and other audio works.
Creative Commons licences do not apply to things such as ideas, factual information or other things that are not protected by copyright.

Make sure you have the rights

Before uploading any material to YOURCE.net or post anything on YOURCE.net blogs, you need to make sure you have the authority to apply the Creative Commons licence to it. This means that you need to make sure that the person who owns the copyright in the work is happy to have the work made available under a Creative Commons licence.
If you are the creator of the work, then you are probably the owner of copyright and so can licence the work how you wish. If you made the work as part of your employment, then your employer probably owns the rights to the work and so only your employer can decide to apply a Creative Commons licence. If you made the work under an agreement, you need to check the terms of that agreement to see if the rights to the work were transferred to someone else.
If you are combining pre-existing works made by other people (unless those works are in the public domain, and thus there is no one from whom permission is required) or working in conjunction with other people to produce something, you need to make sure that you have express and explicit permission to apply a Creative Commons licence to the end result (unless your use of the pre-existing works constitutes fair use, and thus no permission is required). You don´t have this kind of permission in the case of, say, a Madonna CD or a Italo Calvino novel, that you purchase, because these are made available under ¨all rights reserved copyright¨. You can only secure this kind of permission if you are in direct contact with the person, discuss Creative Commons licensing with them and they agree to a specific licence; of course, if you are combining a work that is already Creative Commons-licenced then you will also have the rights, provided your use is consistent with the terms of that licence!

Make sure you understand how Creative Commons licences operate

Before uploading any material to YOURCE.net or post anything on YOURCE.net blogs, you should make sure you understand how the Creative Commons licence operates. You can do this by reviewing the questions below and/or ask specific questions and voice your concerns on Creative Commons´ email discussion lists.

Putting your work on yource.net

How does a Creative Commons licence operate?

A Creative Commons licence is based on copyright. So they apply to all works that are protected by copyright law. The kinds of works that are protected by copyright law are books, websites, blogs, photographs, films, videos, songs and other audio & visual recordings, for example.
Creative Commons licences give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights; such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work. They do not give you the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright - including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing, nor do they give you the ability to control anything that is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas.
Creative Commons licences attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it consistent with the licence. This means that if Bob has a copy of your Creative Commons-licenced work, Bob can give a copy to Carol and Carol will be authorized to use the work consistent with the Creative Commons licence. You then have a licence agreement separately with both Bob and Carol.
One final thing you should understand about Creative Commons licences is that they are all non-exclusive. This means that you can permit the general public to use your work under a Creative Commons licence and then enter into a separate and different non-exclusive licence with someone else, for example, in exchange for money.

What are the terms of a Creative Commons licence?

The key terms of the core suite of Creative Commons licences are: Attribution, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives and ShareAlike. On all works on YOURCE.net a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence applies. The terms are as follows:
Attribution = you must attribute the author and/or licensor in the manner they require.
NonCommercial = you may not use the work in a manner primarily directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.

What if I change my mind?

Creative Commons licences are non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons licence, from using the work according to that licence. You can stop distributing your work under a Creative Commons licence at any time you wish; but this will not withdraw any copies of your work that already exist under a Creative Commons licence from circulation, be they verbatim copies, copies included in collective works and/or adaptations of your work.
So you need to think carefully when uploading works to YOURCE.net, because all works will fall under the Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons licence. Make sure that you are happy for people to be using your work consistent with the terms of the licence, even if you later stop distributing your work.

What happens if someone misuses my Creative Commons-licenced work?

A Creative Commons licence terminates automatically if someone uses your work contrary to the licence terms. This means that, if a person uses your work under a Creative Commons licence and they, for example, fail to attribute your work in the manner you specified, then they no longer have the right to continue to use your work. This only applies in relation to the person in breach of the licence; it does not apply generally to the other people who use your work under a Creative Commons licence and comply with its terms. You have a number of options as to how you can enforce this; you can consider contacting the person and asking them to rectify the situation and/or you can consider consulting a lawyer to act on your behalf.

I don´t like the way a person has used my work in a derivative work or included it in a collective work; what can I do?

If you do not like the way that a person has made a derivative work or incorporated your work into a collective work, under the Creative Commons licences, you may request removal of your name from the derivative work or the collective work.
In addition, the copyright laws in most jurisdictions around the world grant creators ¨moral rights¨ which may provide you with some redress if a derivative work represents a ¨derogatory treatment¨ of your work. Moral rights give an original author the right to object to ¨derogatory treatment¨ of their work; ¨derogatory treatment¨ is typically defined as ¨distortion or mutilation¨ of the work or treatment, which is ¨prejudicial to the honor, or reputation of the author¨. All Creative Commons licences leave moral rights unaffected. This means that an original author may be able to take action against a derivative work that infringes the moral right that protects against derogatory treatment. Of course, not all derivative works that a creator does not like will be considered ¨derogatory¨.

Using works from others on yource.net

Will Creative Commons give me permission to use a work?

The permission isn´t ours to give. Creative Commons simply makes available licences and tools to enable creators and licensors to licence their works on more flexible terms. By applying a Creative Commons licence to a work, the creator or licensor has decided to clearly signal to members of the public, such as you, that you may use the work without having to ask for permission, provided that you use it consistent with the licence terms.

What does a Creative Commons licence do?

A Creative Commons licence is a signal to you that you can use the work without having to seek out the individual creator or licensor and ask for permission, provided you use the work in the manner permitted by the Creative Commons licence. The Commons Deed sets out the key terms governing your use of the work.

How do I use a Creative Commons-licenced work?

So ¨NonCommercial¨ means that the work cannot be used commercially?

Not quite. The ¨NonCommercial¨ licence option means that you do not receive the commercial rights via the Creative Commons licence. You can always approach the licensor directly to see if they will separately licence you the commercial rights.

What is a derivative work?

A derivative work is a work that is based on another work but is not an exact, verbatim copy. What this means exactly and comprehensively is the subject of many law journal articles and much debate and pontification. In general, a translation from one language to another or a film version of a book are examples of derivative works.

How do I properly attribute a Creative Commons licenced work?

The proper way of accrediting your use of a work when you´re making a verbatim use is: (1) to keep intact any copyright notices for the Work; (2) credit the author, licensor and/or other parties (such as a wiki or journal) in the manner they specify; (3) the title of the Work; and (4) the Uniform Resource Identifier for the work if specified by the author and/or licensor.
You also need to provide the Uniform Resource Locator for the Creative Commons licence that applies to the work, together with each copy of the work that you make available.
If you are making a derivative use of a work, in addition to the above, you need to identify that your work is a derivative work, ie. ¨This is a Finnish translation of the [original work] by [author]¨ or ¨Screenplay based on [original work] by [author]¨.

Does Creative Commons determine what content is released under its licences?

Creative Commons, as an organization, does not control how the licences are used and does not check or verify whether a Creative Commons licence has been correctly applied to a particular work. Creative Commons does not endorse or certify any use of its licences. Instead, Creative Commons provides the licences as a tool that may be adopted (or not) by members of the creative community. Creative Commons does not determine whether the use of the licences is appropriate for your situation or for a particular work.

What happens if I want to make a different use of the work?

If you want to use a Creative Commons-licenced work in a manner that is not permitted under the terms of the Creative Commons licence, you need to contact the creator and/or licensor and ask for their permission. If you use a Creative-Commons licenced work contrary to the terms of the Creative Commons licence, your right to use the work terminates and you could be sued for infringement of copyright.

So I don´t have to pay to use Creative Commons-licenced works if I comply with the licence terms?

As a general rule yes, Creative Commons licences are made available under royalty-free licences. In the case of Creative Commons-licenced works that are licenced for NonCommercial use only, the creator or licensor reserves the right to collect statutory royalties or royalties under compulsory licences for commercial uses such as those collected for public performances; so, you may still have to pay a collecting society for such uses of Creative Commons licenced works. However, these are indirect payments, not payments to the licensor.

When are publicity rights relevant?

Publicity rights allow individuals to control how their voice, image or likeness is used for commercial purposes in public. These rights are relevant to any work that contains human subjects, such as photographs, audio or video interviews, plays, songs, and other spoken or visual content. When transmitting this sort of content, including the voices or images of anyone other than yourself, you may need to get permission from those individuals if you are using their voice or images for commercial purposes. This is a distinct and separate obligation from obtaining the copyright licence, which only gives you a licence from the author (or photographer) but not from the subjects. A Creative Commons licence does not waive or otherwise affect the publicity rights of subjects.

Does using a Creative Commons-licenced work give me all the rights I need?

You should be aware that all of the licences contain a disclaimer of warranties, so there is no assurance whatsoever that the licensor has all the necessary rights to permit reuse of the licenced work. The disclaimer means that the licensor is not guaranteeing anything about the work, including that she owns the copyright to it, or that she has cleared any uses of third-party content that her work may be based on or incorporate.
As a result of the warranty disclaimer, before using a Creative Commons licenced work, you should satisfy yourself that the person has all the necessary rights to make the work available under a Creative Commons licence. You should know that if you are wrong, you could be liable for copyright infringement based on your use of the work.
You should learn about what rights need to be cleared and when a fair use or fair dealing defense may be available. It could be that the licensor is relying on the fair use or fair dealing doctrine, but depending on the circumstances, that legal defense may or may not actually protect her (or you). You should educate yourself about the various rights that may be implicated in a copyrighted work, because creative works often incorporate multiple elements such as, for example, underlying stories and characters, recorded sound and song lyrics. If the work contains recognizable third-party content, it may be advisable to independently verify that it has been authorized for reuse under a Creative Commons licence. If the work contains images, voices, or likenesses of people, educate yourself about publicity rights.
The result of this is that you should always use your informed good judgment, and you may want to obtain legal advice.

If I use a Creative Commons-licenced work with other works, do I have to Creative Commons licence everything else as well?

The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence does not require everything else to be Creative Commons licenced as well. We specifically designed the Creative Commons licences so that they would not turn all other works they were combined with into being Creative Commons-licenced.

Can I combine two different Creative Commons licenced works? Can I combine a Creative Commons licenced work with another non-CC licenced work?

Generally yes; you can combine one Creative Commons licenced work with another Creative Commons licenced work or with another work.

If I want to use works from YOURCE.net, which Creative Commons licence can I relicence my work under?

All works on YOURCE.net are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence and you are able to relicence a work under either another Attribution-NonCommercial licence or one of these; Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike or Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.

What if I still have questions about Creative Commons?

If you still have questions, please feel free to visit the Creative Commons FAQ page, where you will find more information. Alternately you can participate in their email discussion lists or email info@creativecommons.org