Creative Commons basics

Creative Commons is not a registry, not a law firm, and not a party to your license. The nonprofit writes and stewards standard copyright licenses and public-domain tools, publishing the legal code and the plain-language deeds. It does not register works, verify ownership, enforce individual licenses, or give legal advice. The license operates entirely between the creator and the public: the creator retains copyright while granting specified permissions in advance. That is the whole arrangement.

Pick your goal below. Each guide starts from a specific question. Identify what you need to do, then move to the guide that answers it.

• Organisation: Creative Commons is a nonprofit steward of standard copyright licenses and public-domain tools. It is not a party to individual licenses.
• Current Suite: Six 4.0 International licenses, plus CC0 and the Public Domain Mark. CC0 and PDM are not licenses.
• All Licenses Require: Attribution. The four conditions are BY, SA, NC and ND. Every license includes BY.
• Version 4.0: Worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable permission for the term of copyright and similar rights.
• No Registration: No registration with Creative Commons is required. Only the copyright holder may apply a license.

The exact license condition is permission in advance. A Creative Commons license grants the public a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable permission to use the work in ways the license describes, as long as the user complies with its terms.

The decisive exception: the license only applies where copyright or similar rights require permission. Exceptions and limitations such as fair use or fair dealing operate separately. If a fair use exception authorises the use, the license conditions do not apply to that use. Their scope varies by jurisdiction.

Identify exactly what you intend to do with the work, then check whether that activity is permitted under the specific license version. Open the original source page. Record the creator, source URL, exact license and version, displayed notices, exclusions and the date checked. Preserve a screenshot when the use matters. Only then confirm your intended activity against the license conditions.

Route yourself by your goal.

Share Your Own Work

Only the copyright holder, or someone with express authority, may apply a Creative Commons license. Confirm joint authors, employment ownership, commissioned-work terms, performer rights, samples and third-party inclusions first. Use the official chooser to create a license notice. Use version 4.0 for a new license unless a specific, informed reason requires an older version or port. A license notice should identify the work and creator, name and link the exact license and version, link the source where useful, and clearly exclude material not covered. No registration with Creative Commons is required.

Reuse Someone Else's Work

Open the original source page. Do not rely on a repost, search thumbnail or platform filter alone. Record the creator, source URL, exact license and version, displayed notices, exclusions and the date checked. Confirm your intended activity: share unchanged, adapt, use commercially, or combine. Test the NC, ND and SA conditions against that activity. Check non-copyright permissions: people depicted or recorded, brands, data, location or property restrictions, confidentiality and platform rules. Attribute in a reasonable manner, link the exact license, mark changes and avoid implying endorsement.

Combine Or Adapt Works

A collection keeps separate works separate, such as unchanged essays in an anthology. Each work retains its own license. Adapted Material is based on and modifies the licensed work in a way requiring copyright permission. Only the contribution made by the adapter is covered by the adapter's license. Combining material is not automatically lawful because each input uses a Creative Commons license. ND may block sharing the combination if it is an adaptation. SA may require a specific adapter's license. Two inputs can impose incompatible terms. Use the official compatibility chart and distinguish mere aggregation from an integrated adaptation.

License	Conditions	Can Share Unchanged	Can Adapt And Share	Commercial Use Permitted
CC BY 4.0	BY	Yes	Yes	Yes
CC BY-SA 4.0	BY, SA	Yes	Yes, shared adaptations must use BY-SA 4.0 or a compatible license	Yes
CC BY-ND 4.0	BY, ND	Yes	No	Yes
CC BY-NC 4.0	BY, NC	Yes	Yes, NonCommercial only	No
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0	BY, NC, SA	Yes	Yes, NonCommercial only, shared adaptations must use BY-NC-SA 4.0 or a compatible license	No
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0	BY, NC, ND	Yes	No	No

Every Creative Commons license includes the Attribution condition. Under 4.0, a reuser must retain, when supplied by the licensor: identification of the creator and designated attribution parties; a copyright notice; a notice referring to the license; a warranty disclaimer; and a URI or hyperlink to the material where reasonably practicable. The reuser must link or refer to the license and indicate modifications, retaining earlier modification notices. Attribution must not imply endorsement.

ShareAlike (SA)

This condition is triggered when Adapted Material is shared, not when unchanged material merely appears beside other separate works in a collection. The adapter applies the license named by the applicable SA clause or an officially designated compatible license. Do not assume two SA licenses are compatible. The official compatibility list controls. Creative Commons lists one-way compatibility from BY-SA 4.0 to GPLv3 for adapted material; this does not turn a Creative Commons license into a software license or create compatibility in the reverse direction.

NonCommercial (NC)

Version 4.0 defines NonCommercial as not primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation. The identity of the user, business, nonprofit, school or individual, does not decide the issue by itself. Advertising, sponsorship, fundraising, internal business use and mixed purposes require context. Do not invent a bright-line rule. If the planned use has material commercial risk, get separate permission or local legal advice.

NoDerivatives (ND)

Sharing Adapted Material is not permitted under an ND license. Reproduction in a different format alone does not create Adapted Material under the 4.0 definition. Translation is normally an adaptation. Synchronising music with a moving image is expressly Adapted Material under 4.0. Whether cropping, excerpting, editing or combining creates an adaptation can depend on applicable copyright law; do not declare a universal boundary.

The 4.0 licenses grant worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable permission for the term of the licensed copyright and similar rights, subject to conditions. Downstream recipients receive an offer from the original licensor; a reuser does not sublicense the original material. Version 4.0 expressly addresses sui generis database rights. It does not license patent or trademark rights. Moral, privacy and personality rights are handled only to the limited extent stated in the legal code and may still matter.

A recipient may not impose additional legal terms or effective technological measures that restrict another recipient's exercise of the licensed rights. Platforms with exclusive sublicensing terms, download restrictions or DRM can therefore create a conflict. Check current platform terms instead of assuming a Creative Commons badge resolves that conflict.

Public Domain Tools

CC0 and the Public Domain Mark are not two more licenses in that suite. CC0 is a public-domain dedication with a waiver, a fallback license where waiver is not effective, and a non-assertion promise limited to remaining Copyright and Related Rights. PDM changes no rights; it marks material believed to be free of known copyright restrictions worldwide. Neither tool guarantees that privacy, publicity, trademark, patent, contract, cultural-heritage or other law permits a use.

Creative Commons licenses suit creators who want to grant the public standard permissions in advance without negotiating individual licenses. They suit reusers who need clear, machine-readable terms for sharing, adapting or combining works. They suit educators assembling open educational resources where permissions to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute are essential. BY and BY-SA support those activities; ND prevents shared revision, and NC narrows downstream contexts.

Creative Commons does not suit creators who need to retain control over every use or who want the license to adapt to specific circumstances. It does not suit reusers who need a license for software code. It does not suit anyone who expects Creative Commons to enforce the license for them. It does not suit a use that requires a country-specific legal conclusion without consulting a qualified lawyer in that jurisdiction.