Which license options are there?
BY: attribution
The author of the work must be named. This is a requirement for any CC license.
NC: non-commercial
The work may not be used for commercial purposes.
ND: no derivatives
The work must not be altered.
SA: share alike
The work may be modified and distributed, but only under the original license.
The license agreements listed below are composed of different combinations of the four elements.
Further combinations are not possible since the individual modules can also contradict each other.
License abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
CC-BY | Attribution |
CC-BY-SA | Attribution, share alike |
CC-BY-NC | Attribution, non-commercial |
CC-BY-NC-SA | Attribution, non-commercial, share alike |
CC-BY-ND | Atrribution, no derivates |
CC-BY-NC-ND | Attribution, non-commercial, no derivates |
CC BY 4.0. – Recommended as Open Access compliant license
You must: This is the freest license. Prerequisites for subsequent use are giving credit to the author and specifying which changes have been made.
Please note, however, that the source should always be fully cited as part of good scientific practice.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, edited, distributed and made publicly available. Commercial use is also possible.
CC-BY-SA 4.0 – recommended as Open Access compliant license
You must: This license also enables extensive subsequent use. Prerequisites are giving credit to the author and the indication of which changes were made. However, the adaptation must be shared under the same conditions, i.e. CC-BY-SA or a comparable license.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, edited, distributed and made publicly available. Commercial use is also possible.
CC-BY-NC 4.0
You must: Prerequisites for subsequent use are giving credit to the author and specifying the changes made.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, edited, distributed and made publicly available.
Forms of use that are not permitted: The license restricts subsequent use to the extent that commercial use of the content is not permitted. What exactly is meant by "commercial" has not been specified by Creative Commons. However, the term covers much more than just classic commercial use. Even a free, advertising-funded database can be considered commercial, which would make it impossible to use the content licensed under CC-BY-NC there. You should therefore consider carefully whether you want to use this license component.
For a more detailed overview of what can be interpreted as "commercial" in the sense of this license, you will find help in the further information.
CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
You must: Prerequisites for subsequent use are giving credit to the author and specifying the changes made. The adaption must be shared under the same conditions, i.e. CC-BY-NC-SA or a comparable license.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, edited, distributed and made publicly available.
Non-permitted forms of use: Commercial use is permitted as with the previous license and is subject to the same conceptual problems.
CC-BY-ND 4.0
You must: The prerequisite for subsequent use is giving credit to the author.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, distributed and made publicly available. Commercial use is also possible.
Prohibited forms of use: No adaptions or derivatives of the work are permitted. You are therefore not allowed to edit the content, redesign it in any other way (e.g. dubbing) or translate it. Changing the format (Word à PDF) does not count as editing.
CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 – not Open Access compliant
You must: The prerequisite for subsequent use is giving credit to the author.
Permitted use: Content under this license may be reproduced, distributed and made publicly available.
Prohibited forms of use: This license is the most restrictive license that Creative Commons provides. The content may not be edited or used commercially.