Licensing Checklist
Use this checklist to ensure your resource meets the requirements for open licensing. It’s helpful to review the checklist BEFORE you begin development work so that you can design your resource with open licensing requirements in mind from the beginning.
Creative Commons License Chooser (beta)
Don't know what license you need? The Creative Commons License Chooser tool is here to help. Follow the steps to select the appropriate license for your work. This site does not store any information.
AI and OER
Though some AI providers, such as OpenAI, “give” users ownership of the content created by tools like ChatGPT, the current legal reality in the United State is complicated. Thaler v. Perlmutter, a recent AI copyright case, reaffirms that copyright protection only applies to works of human creation. Thus AI generated works cannot be copyrighted and are therefore in the public domain. Because open licenses only apply to works protected by copyright, those wishing to apply an open license to the AI tool generated work must incorporate sufficient changes to be considered a work of their own creative expression, and therefore copyrightable.
Be transparent about the use of AI tools you use to generate ideas or compose text. Always cite AI generated content.
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Disclaimer
The information presented in this guide is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s pressing challenges.
Part of the Creative Commons mission is to provide Creative Commons licenses that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works.
Put another way, Creative Commons (CC) licenses are free, legally binding licenses that creators can apply to the work they create and can claim copyrights over. Applying a CC license is a quick and easy way to proactively tell the world how anyone is and is not allowed to reuse your copyrighted work.
Creative Commons Licenses
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CC0 Public Domain Dedication - By using CC0, you waive all copyright and related rights to a work to the extent possible under the law. |
| Attribution, CC BY - This is the most open of all licenses offered. Allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. |
| Attribution-Share Alike, CC BY-SA - This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
| Attribution-NonCommercial, CC BY-NC - This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. |
| Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, CC BY-NC-SA - This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
| Attribution-NoDerivatives, CC BY-ND - This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. |
| Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs, CC BY-NC-ND - This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. |
Adapted from the Lansing Community College (LCC) Library Research Guide on Open Educational Resource (OER) Edited by Amy Larson by Regina Gong is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
How do I license a work with 3rd party content?
The type of CC license you choose must be consistent with the permissions you have received from the copyright holders of all 3rd party content in your paper. Be sure to also mark 3rd party content with appropriate copyright statements.
Not all CC licenses are compatible with other CC licenses. If your 3rd party content has a CC license, use this chart to see if you may be prevented from using a particular license.
License Compatibility Chart, Wiki/cc license compatibility, August 2024. This wiki is licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.