Creative Commons Licenses

Copyright intersects with Creative Commons in several important ways:

• The work the Creative Commons organization developed in response to increasing restrictions to copyright law in the U.S. Creative Commons promotes sharing of creative works to advance the goals of copyright "to promote the progress of science and useful arts" while respecting creators' intellectual property.
• Licenses developed by Creative Commons are applied on creative works for which the creator still retains copyright. Copyright underlies all works with CC licenses. In other words, you cannot apply a CC license to a work unless you own the copyright.
• Creative Commons also provides the Author Addenda tool to help authors and scholars "manage their copyrights on their terms." The tool is intended to give authors a way to retain copyright of their material that is published in the traditional manner.

See below for more about copyright.

What is copyright?

Copyright exists on a work and is held by the creator as soon as the work is in a fixed form. Copyright, along with trademarks and patents, is a form of intellectual property.

The purpose of copyright is spelled out in the U.S. Constitution: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
 

What rights are embedded with copyright?

A copyright holder has these exclusive rights:

• The right to reproduce copies of the work.
• The right to make derivatives, such as translations, adaptations, etc.
• The right to distribute copies by sale, rental, lease or transfer of ownership.
• The right to perform the work publicly or by audiovisual methods.

What types of works can be copyrighted?

Works eligible for copyright protection (see the U.S. Copyright Office Circular 1 and Circular 33) must be be created by a human, be original, have some degree of creativity, and be in a tangible or fixed format (the expression of the work). Some things are not eligible for copyright protection:

• names, titles
• ideas
• procedures, methods, processes
• systems
• concepts, principles
• mere lists
• slogans or short phrases
• familiar signs

What are exceptions and limitations of copyright?

U.S. copyright law has some important exceptions and limitations. These become important when making decisions on using CC licensed material. If the use of a CC licensed work is covered by one or more of the exceptions/limitations, then the CC license applied to the work becomes irrelevant.

• Fair use (review/commentary, parody, satire, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research)
• Libraries can make preservation copies.
• Copies in special formats can be made for the blind and for people with disabilities. 
• Purchasers of legal copies can dispose of their copies how they see fit.