It is known as Creative Commons (CC) the system of licensing that allows the public to use a creative work in a free form in the way and extension previously agreed by the author.
Must be understood that almost every legislation around the world automatically gives all the copyrights for the creation to the author of it. Creative Commons allows the author to renounce some or all of these rights. In practice it moves the traditional axis in copyright matters from “all rights reserved” to one of “some rights reserved”.
This is accomplished by a set of legal instruments (CC Licenses), created and promoted for the use of any creator, by the non-profit organization of the same name, founded in 2001 by the Stanford’s law professor, Lawrence Lessig.
This system doesn’t replace the traditional model of copyrights, but complements it and make it easier to generate and divulge the creations through the web.
The owner of the work can establish the type of CC License that best suits his goals at the moment of making the work public. This conditions for the use of his material will be digitally incorporated to the work, this will allow the user to identify and filter the type of license that the work has and the way to use it.
The different Licenses are structured from the combination of 4 concepts:
Attribution or CC BY: The user is aloud to share, copy or exhibit the work if the proper recognition to the author is given.
Non-Commercial or CC NC: The user is aloud to share, copy or exhibit the work when is not done with commercial purposes.
No Derivative Work or CC ND: The user is aloud to share, copy or exhibit the work if it is not altered or modified in any way.
Share Alike or CC SA: The user is aloud to share, copy or exhibit the work if it is done with the same license than the original work.
Starting from this concepts 7 license types exist, from the more restrictive to the less restrictive these are:
CC BY NC ND: The user may share, copy or exhibit the work, whenever credit is given to the author, it is not made with commercial purposes and the work is not altered or modified in any way.
CC BY NC SA: The user may share, copy or exhibit the work, and even alter or modify it, whenever credit is given to the author, it is not made with commercial purposes, and the same license is granted over the new work.
CC BY NC: The user may share, copy or exhibit the work, and even alter or modify it, whenever credit is given to the author and it is not made with commercial purposes.
CC BY ND: The user may share, copy or exhibit the work, even with commercial purposes, whenever credit is given to the author, and the work is not altered or modified in any way.
CC BY SA: The user may share, copy or exhibit the work, and even alter or modify it, even with commercial purposes, whenever credit is given to the author and the same license is granted over the new work.
CC BY: The user may use the work in any way, being required only to give credit to the author of the work.
CC0: Frees the user from any obligation to the author inside legislation boundaries. In particular the work becomes part of the public domain.
Santiago Henríquez C., Lawyer
Source: creativecommons.org
Picture: Ryan Mcguire (CC0)