For reference here’s a quick run-down of Creative Commons (CC) v. 3 licenses with comments on their usefulness for open education. As most of you probably already know, CC provides a means by which creators can license their works differently from pre-existing intellectual property licenses. In the USA the two options have been copyright or public domain. CC provides for lots of options in between.
The following table is adapted from CreativeCommons.org:
| Name | Characteristics | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Version 3.0 Licenses: | |||
| Attribution |  |
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| CC By. Usage requires citing, referencing of the creator/source. For OERs this is the most “open” license, in my opinion. Unlike Share Alike (see below), it does not mandate any particular license on subsequent adaptations or derivations. | |||
| Attribution-NoDerivs | |
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| CC By-ND. Usage additionally mandates that no derivative works or adaptations may be made. For OERs I think this is most applicable when a creator is concerned about losing the integrity of the original work if adaptaions, derivations, or remixes are made. | |||
| Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs | |
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| CC By-NC-ND. Usage additionally mandates that no commercial use will be made of the work, whatever that means. This is for paranoid creators of OERs, or those who legitimately want to protect the integrity of their work.. | |||
| Attribution-NonCommercial | |
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| CC By-NC. See above. I think this is an underused license in OERs, as it stipulates non-commercial usage but doesn’t limit adaptations to using the same license. | |||
| Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike | |
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| CC By-NC-SA. Usage additionally requires that any derivatives, remixes, or adaptation of the work be licensed under the same Creative Commons license. This seems to be the most common CC license for OERs, as it stipulates that all uses are non-commercial, presumably “for educational purposes only”, and preserves the open-ness of the work and any and all future derivatives. | |||
| Attribution-ShareAlike | |
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| CC By-SA. See above. This is a common CC license for OER where the creator wants to forever preserve the open-ness of the work and all derivatives. | |||
Additionally, there are two notable licenses in draft on the Creative Commons wiki:
Creative Commons Zero (CC0)
According to Creative Commons, Creative Commons Zero (or CC0)…
…is a protocol that enables people to WAIVE to the fullest extent possible under applicable copyright law all rights they have and associate with a work so it has no (or minimal) copyright or neighboring rights restrictions attached to it.
In the US we typically call such works “public domain”, but some writers (e.g. Terry Hancock in FreeSoftware Magazine) have noted that public domain is not a license at all, while CC0 will be.
Creative Commons Plus (CC+)
Creative Commons Plus (or, CC+) is simply an existing Creative Commons license plus “some other agreement which provides more permissions” or, perhaps, requirements. For example, Creative Commons refers to a commercial license “tailored for specific uses with specific names of copyright holders”.
Commentary: I like the idea of both of these additional licenses, as Creative Commons has made the idea of sharing works more accessible and understandable, but is not yet sufficiently encompassing for all uses. Plus and Zero seem to fill the gaps, and for open education might provide creators and institutions with flexibility while still conforming to the Creative Commons label in such a way that basic usage is more instantly understandable (without reading through paragraphs of legalese).
