Creative Commons licenses have three layers - a legal code, a commons deed that summarizes the legal terms, and a machine-readable version. There are four license pieces that can be combined to create six licenses total. All require attribution of the original author. Other pieces include allowing adaptations if shared under the same license (CC-BY-SA), prohibiting commercial use (CC-BY-NC), and prohibiting derivatives (CC-BY-ND). Creative Commons also has a public domain tool to dedicate works directly to the public domain or allow any use. Copyright exceptions are not affected by Creative Commons licenses.

1. Anatomy of a
Creative
Commons License
Mandi Goodsett
Summer 2018
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License.

2. While searching
online, you may
have seen a symbol
that looks like this:

3. Or like this:

4. Or like this:

5. These are Creative
Commons licenses, and
they give users permissions
to use copyrighted works in
specific ways.

6. Let’s explore how
they work.

7. The anatomy of a CC
license works like this:
Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright - they
layer over the top of it, granting public permission to use works
under standardized conditions.

8. The anatomy of a CC
license works like this:
Creative Commons licenses have three layers. The base layer
consists of legal code meant for lawyers to read.

9. The anatomy of a CC
license works like this:
The second layer is the commons deed, which lays out the
terms and summarizes the legal code in language for
non-lawyers.

10. The anatomy of a CC
license works like this:
The third layer is the machine-readable version of the license
that makes it findable on the Internet.

11. What do CC
licenses give users
permission to do?

12. There are four
license pieces.
The pieces can be combined to
make six different licenses.

13. There are four
license pieces.
All of the licenses include at least
CC-BY (Attribution), which
means users can use the work for
any purpose, but must attribute
the work to the original author.

14. There are four
license pieces.
The CC-BY-SA (Share Alike) license
allows any use but requires that
users attribute the original work to
the author, and if any adaptations
are made, that they be shared with
the same license the original work
was shared with.

15. There are four
license pieces.
This one can be tricky. An adaptation
(often called a derivative) of the
original has fairly substantial updates.
For example, fixing basic spelling
errors or cropping a photo would not
constitute an adaptation.

16. There are four
license pieces.
The CC-BY-NC (Non-Commercial)
license allows for any use, but
requires that users attribute the
original work to the author, and that
they refrain from using the work for
commercial gain.

17. There are four
license pieces.
It’s important to note with this
license that the use, not the user, is
what is limited. A for-profit
institution could use the work, as
long as it was not for commercial
gain.

18. There are four
license pieces.
The CC-BY-ND (Non-Derivative)
license allows for any use but
requires that users attribute the
original work to the author, and that
they refrain from changing the
original work without permission
from the author.

19. There are four
license pieces.
There are two additional
combinations of the basic licenses
pieces that are possible, as well:
CC-BY-NC-SA and CC-BY-NC-ND.

20. The Public
Domain
Dedication Tool
Creative Commons also created
a public domain tool that allows
users to dedicate their work
directly to the public domain.

21. The Public
Domain
Dedication Tool
Not all countries allow someone
to dedicate their work to the
public domain, so the tool also
includes a license that allows for
any use by anyone.

22. How do these
licenses interact
with copyright
exceptions?

23. Copyright
Exceptions & CC
A user who is invoking a
copyright exception (like
the TEACH Act or fair use)
would not be affected by
the presence (or lack) of a
Creative Commons
license.

24. Copyright
Exceptions & CC
Works in the public
domain are also not
affected by CC licenses.
However, it can be helpful
for users to add the Public
Domain marker to works
that are known to be in
the public domain.

25. Creative Commons
licenses have been
upheld in court and their
legal enforceability
contributes greatly to
their value for users.

26. For more information and to
apply a Creative Commons
license to your own work,
visit creativecommons.org.

27. References, in order of appearance
● “Creative Commons Certificate Course content” by Creative Commons is
licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 license.
● Creative Commons license symbols downloaded from the Creative Commons
Logo Site.
● CCDHS Classroom, Miles City by David Schott is licensed under a CC-BY 2.0
Generic License.
● RMS Titanic 4 is in the Public Domain.