Creative Commons Licenses: What are they for and how to use them?

Creative Commons Licenses became popular over time, so much so So currently Google and YouTube allow you to filter searches by this type of license. It can generate a little confusion as soon as we read about this topic, so in this article I am going to explain everything you need to know about these licenses. Whether you are a author who wants to license your works with creative commons or a video creator who wants to use a song in the background, in this article I am going to cover everything.

Guide

Creative Commons Licenses: What are they?How do you know if a work has a CC License?Types of Creative Commons licensesCreative Commons vs CopyrightPlaces to find works with CCMúsica Royalty Free vs Creative CommonsHow can you reuse a work with CC? How to license a work with CC? Final thoughtsRelated questions

Creative Commons Licenses: What are they?

Creative Commons (CC) are a set of licenses that allow authors of works (music, images, videos, etc.) to share their content with other people. When an author decides to share their song or image with creative commons, they are deciding that others can use your work freely under certain conditions. Most creative commons licenses work by giving credit. That is, anyone can use the work if they simply prove that it is the author’s. But, there are different types of creative commons licenses, since some allow commercial purposes, others adaptation and thus a series of conditions.

How do you know if a work has a CC License?

To know if a person decided to share their work with creative commons, they have to say so explicitly. Depending on the platform where you find it, there are generally these signs:

There is a creative commons logo with the type of license.
The author explains in the description that he is using creative commons.
Some sites like YouTube at the end say if they are marked with CC.

That is, the author has to state somewhere that he uses this type of license.

Types of Creative Commons licenses

We already know that Creative Commons licenses generally allow re-use by giving credit to the author. But, this does not mean that they are all the same. Each one has very specific instructions on what can and cannot be done. You can read the details of each license on their page, but here I will explain them in summary.

CC BY: This is the most permissive. Allows people to distribute and adapt the work for commercial purposes, as long as credit is given.
CC BY-SA: Allows people to distribute and adapt the work for commercial purposes but in the same published format. And always giving credit.
CC BY-ND: People can use the work by giving credit for commercial reasons, but they cannot make modifications or adaptations.
CC BY-NC: Allows the distribution and adaptation of the work by giving credit, but for non-commercial purposes.
CC BY-NC-SA: You can distribute and modify the work giving credit without commercial purposes and under the same terms.
CC BY-NC-ND: This is the most restrictive, it only allows distributing the work without commercial purposes or adaptations, granting credit to the creator.

So the differences consist of whether or not they allow adaptations, commercial purposes, credit or the same format of sharing the adaptation.

Creative Commons vs Copyright

Creative Commons comes to disrupt the traditional use of Copyright. That is, copyright laws never allow the re-use of content without permission. Therefore, at this point the idea of Creative is quite revolutionary. Commons.This project reached so high that now you can even catalog videos on YouTube with Creative Commons, search for images on Google with these licenses, also on Flickr and many other sites.

However, the idea of Creative Commons does not go against copyright.

The work still belongs to the author and has all the rights, only that it allows free re-use. From their page they respond to this, the idea is to provide a legal tool to the creator of a work to offer certain rights to the public .For those who do not want to share their work, they can simply decide not to use these licenses.

Places to find works with CC

So, where can you get creative commons songs, images or videos?

Images: You can search for images with CC directly in the CC search engine. Also in Google Images you can filter in Tools –> Use rights –> Creative Commons Licenses.
Music: You can find it in SoundCloud (filtering under “To Listen” and the type of license) or in CCMixter. You can check another post where there is a list of all the places where you can find music with Creative Commons.
Videos: On YouTube you can click on Filters –> Features –> Creative Commons.

There are millions of Creative Commons works to use around the internet, so you have many resources.

Royalty Free vs Creative Commons Music

You may have seen the term Royalty Free in many songs floating around YouTube or the internet.

Is Royalty Free the same as Creative Commons?

No!

Royalty free music is a type of paid music where to acquire the right to use the songs you have to buy a license.

That is, royalty free is not free.

Creative Commons is free, but you must give the credits and comply with the license conditions.

The advantages of Royalty free music is that you do not have to give credit for using the music since you are purchasing the license. Royalty free songs can be purchased individually or with a monthly membership service that gives you access to hundreds of songs together.

How can you re-use a work with CC?

Generally the author of the work will give you specific instructions to give credit to his work. But in the event that he does not provide them, CC Wiki gives some good practices for attributing. The details you must attribute are:

Title: The name of the original work.
Author: The name of the author.
Source: The link where you found it; It can be a link from YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.
License: You must also name the type of license Creative Commons and leave the license link. Such as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ for the CC BY-NC type.

With all this accredited, you can ensure that you are in good standing. But always read if the author has any specific instructions.

How to license a work with CC?

On the other hand, if you are a musician, photographer or other type of content creator and you want to share your work with others, you can use creative commons licenses. All you have to do to use Creative Commons is choose a type license and communicate to your audience that you are using them. On some platforms such as YouTube or SoundCloud you can select that you are distributing the work under Creative Commons. There is no manual registration process on their page for these licenses. You can follow the procedure on their page to choose a type of license, but it is simply an instruction. You can also give specific instructions to the audience on how to accredit, as we saw in the previous point.

Final thoughts

Creative commons are an excellent type of license that allows the use of works in a more flexible way than traditional copyright. As we have seen, it does not go against copyright, but is a way to accompany it. It has many benefits both for authors and users, since the author generates more interaction and exposure through credit, and the user can freely use the work. It is a great project that makes a lot of sense and provides a great tool for sharing works.