The great thing about the creative and media industry is the variety of resources you have at your fingertips. Of course, some of them can be pretty expensive, but today we are going to talk a bit about great resources that are free of charge.
What is Creative Commons (which we will now refer to as CC)?
To offer an exact definition, we are going to quote their description: ‘Creative Commons is a nonprofit organisation that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.’
CC is basically a type of licence that makes it easy for creators to share their work as they choose and as much as they want.
If you want to use material that is CC-licensed, make sure you know what the conditions are.
What types of licenses are available?
CC BY – This license allows you to distribute, modify and build upon the original work. This is the most permissive licence, since you are allowed to use the material commercially as well.
CC BY-SA – Same as above, this license allows you to build upon the original work and you can use it for also commercial purposes. However, you are obliged to licence the work under identical terms and credit the original creator.
CC BY-ND – Allows redistribution, either commercial or non-commercial, as long as the work remains unchanged and the creator is credited.
CC BY-NC – Allows remixes and modifications, but only for non-commercial uses.
CC BY-NC-SA – Allows remixes and modifications, but only for non-commercial uses and only as long as it is credited to the original creator.
CC BY-NC-ND – This is the most restrictive of the licenses. You can share the work, but only non-commercially and without altering its original form in any way.
What type of work can be CC licensed?
Pretty much anything, from songs, images and videos, to scientific and academic material.
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