What is a good Creative Commons attribution example?

“Photo by Jane Smith / CC BY 4.0” with a link to the license deed and a link to the work meets the legal requirement under the 4.0 license terms. But the decisive condition is that you must also indicate any changes you made. Check the source page for extra notices the rights holder supplied, then add them to your attribution.

An attribution that satisfies the legal condition while being useful to your audience. Under CC 4.0, the license requires you to keep any copyright notice, warranty disclaimer, rights holder name, and a URI or hyperlink to the work where reasonably practicable. You also need to link to the license deed. A single sentence that includes those elements works.

Copyable Examples That Meet the Legal Duty

Here is an example for an unmodified photograph: “Photo by Carlos Rivera / CC BY 4.0 / Original at [source URL] The rights holder name is present, the exact license is named and linked, and the source URL is included. This meets the legal duty. The attribution does not need a work title under 4.0, though adding one helps your audience find the work again.

For a work you have changed, you must add a change notice. A good example is: “Adapted from ‘Cityscape at Night’ by Maria Chen / CC BY 4.0 / Original at [source URL]. Changes: cropped to square, increased contrast.” The phrase “Adapted from” signals a derivative, and the change list is honest and specific.

Many reuse guides teach TASL, title, author, source, license, as a mnemonic. TASL is useful, but it is not the literal 4.0 attribution clause. The legal text does not separately require the work’s title, and it does not define a single format. The condition says you must retain, when supplied by the licensor: identification of the rights holder and designated attribution parties; a copyright notice; a notice referring to the license; a warranty disclaimer; and a URI or hyperlink to the work where reasonably practicable.

The difference matters. If a rights holder supplies a copyright notice like “© 2023 Jane Smith. Used with permission,” you must keep it. If they supply a warranty disclaimer, you must keep that too. TASL would miss both. The legal requirement also says you must link or refer to the license and indicate modifications, and you must retain earlier modification notices from previous reusers.

Start with the supplied notices. Copy them exactly, then add a license link and a source link. If the rights holder did not supply a title, do not invent one. If they supplied a long attribution party list, include it. TASL is a helpful starting checklist for the average use, but the legal requirement is broader and fact-specific.

Below are examples you can copy for your own use. Each one is designed for a different medium. The rule is the same: name the rights holder, link to the exact license deed, and link to the work. Use the URL that Creative Commons publishes for the deed of that version; for 4.0, that is the official CC BY 4.0 deed.

Photograph on a Website

“Photo by Anika Patel / CC BY 4.0 / See original at [source URL] Place this caption directly below the image. If the image appears in a gallery, a consolidated credits page is acceptable as long as the mapping from each image to its credit is clear and the credits remain accessible from each image page.

Music in a Video

“Background track: ‘Forest Walk’ by Leo Yamamoto / CC BY 4.0 / Source at [source URL] Add this to the video description or end credits. Indicate the point in the video where the track plays if the video uses multiple songs.

Text Quotation in an Article

“From ‘Why Night Skies Matter’ by Dr. Elena Voss / CC BY 4.0 / Read the full article at [source URL] This attribution works for a block quotation. If you quote only a small excerpt, you do not need a separate change notice because you have merely reproduced a part of the work, not created Adapted Material.

When you create Adapted Material, translating a text or synchronising music with moving images, your attribution must include a change notice. The 4.0 legal code requires you to “indicate any modifications.” A good example reads: “This work is an adaptation of ‘City Lights’ by Tom Hardy / CC BY 4.0 / Changes: cropped, colour-adjusted.” Place this in the same location as the attribution itself.

What Counts as an Adaptation

Not every change is an adaptation under 4.0. Format-shifting alone, converting a JPEG to PNG or downloading a PDF, is not Adapted Material. Cropping, excerpting, or editing may or may not create an adaptation; that depends on applicable copyright law. Two things are categorical in 4.0: translation is normally an adaptation, and synchronising music with a moving image is expressly Adapted Material. If you are unsure, include a change notice anyway. It costs nothing and satisfies the requirement if the change was in fact an adaptation.

Combining Works: Adaptation or Collection

If you place an unchanged CC-licensed photograph next to your own text in a PDF, you have created a collection, not an adaptation. Each work keeps its own license. Attribute the photograph separately from your text. If you merge two CC-licensed images into a single composite where the original images are no longer separable, that composite is an adaptation of each input. You must attribute both rights holders and add a change notice that describes the merging. Check the NoDerivatives condition: if either input uses ND, you may not share the composite at all.

ShareAlike (SA) does not change the attribution requirement itself, you still attribute the original rights holder the same way. What changes is the license you must apply to your adapted work. Under CC BY-SA 4.0, when you share Adapted Material, you must license your contribution under BY-SA 4.0 or an officially designated compatible license. Creative Commons has listed one-way compatibility from BY-SA 4.0 to GPLv3 for adapted material, but that does not turn a CC license into a software license or create compatibility in the reverse direction.

The failure case: a reuser creates a composite from a BY-SA photo and a BY-NC-SA photo, then licenses the composite as BY. That composite violates the ShareAlike condition on both inputs, and the license on the composite is not valid for the adapted portions. Check the official compatibility chart before combining SA works.

A common failure is omitting the change notice on an adapted work. Reusers crop a photo or translate a text, then copy the original attribution verbatim. Under 4.0, that is a breach. Another common failure is assuming that TASL is the complete legal rule, it is not, and missing a supplied copyright notice or warranty disclaimer also breaches the license. Always start from the rights holder’s original notices, then add the license link, source link, and change notice. That combination satisfies the legal condition for any CC 4.0 license.

Creative Commons attribution examples that omit the change notice are not good examples. A good example always includes it.