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Creative Commons Licenses — Home

An overview of the open licenses called Creative Commons, which are important in both open access publishing and in Open Education Resources (OER.)

Creative Commons Licenses Overview

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Creative Commons (CC) licenses are an excellent tool for both authors and content users. This guide offers information on the licenses and links to more information at the Creative Commons website.

CC licenses were developed to address the tension between the legal rights of creators and the myriad uses that the Internet and new technologies make possible for created works.

What are Creative Commons Licenses?

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are open licenses available to any copyright holder or content creator to use for free. The goal is to keep creative works protected under copyright law but to make them available for use by others in a variety of ways determined by the creator.

When a CC license is applied to a copyrighted work, the author declares what can and cannot be done with that work by any user, and users know what they can do with a work without needing to ask permission. 

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Jennifer Schaefer
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