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Anatomy of a Creative Commons License
What is a CC license?
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A Creative Commons license is a tool to help both content creators and end users make the best use of copyright material. The licenses work alongside traditional copyright and allow content creators to specify exactly how they wish others to use their work.
Layers of the license
Each CC license contains three layers which make up the license as a whole:
Machine readable - the level aimed at computers which is easily read by software, apps and search engines.
Legal code - the lawyer readable Ts & Cs. This layer outlines the legally enforceable part of the license.
Common deeds - the human readable version which provides a clear summary.
Jigsaw licenses
You can think of a Creative Commons license as a jigsaw where each piece is important and assembled to create a bigger picture:
Attribution - each license must acknowledge the author of the work.
No-derivatives - cannot share changes to or remixes of the work.
NonCommercial - new works can only be used for non-commercial purposes.
ShareAlike - new creations must be shared under the same license as the original work.
You can put these puzzle pieces together to create a bespoke licence for your work.
