Creative Commons is a US based, non-profit organisation founded in 2001. It offers a range of licensing options that creators of copyright works can use (free of charge) to define how other people may use, distribute and/or modify their copyright works.
To date 44 countries have taken on the project of offering Creative Commons licences. The project has recently been adopted in New Zealand, where it is run by the Council of Humanities through Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Creative Commons licensing system is based on the understanding that the copyright spectrum ranges from full protection (where all rights are reserved) to works being placed in the public domain (where no rights are reserved). Creative Copyright licences operate so that some rights are reserved, i.e. creators maintain their copyright but are able to encourage certain uses of their copyright works.
There are 6 main Creative Commons licences, which give creators the flexibility to mix and match preferences from the following options:
- Attribution: allows third parties to copy, distribute, display and perform the original copyright work and derivative works based upon it, but requires the third party to acknowledge the original copyright creator.
- Non-commercial: allows third parties to copy, distribute, display and perform the original copyright work and derivative works based on it, but only for non-commercial purposes.
- No derivative works: allows third parties to copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the original copyright work but not to make derivative works.
- Share alike: allows third parties to distribute derivative works but only under a licence identical to the licence that applies to the original copyright work.
Creative Commons licences are non exclusive, so that once a licence is applied to a work, any member of the general public can use the work in the manner prescribed.