Add a Creative Commons Licence to your book

Choosing a licence

When choosing the licence to use, consider:

  • Do you want your work to be able to be shared?
  • Do you want your work to be adapted, remixed or modified?
  • Do you want your work to be only adapted and shared for noncommercial purposes?
  • Do you want to relinquish your copyright altogether?
  • Do you want to add it to a specific platform e.g. Wikimedia Commons?[1]

The following infographic provides a flowchart to help you select the right licence for you.

Diagram of how to choose a Creative Commons licence
“Choo-Choo-Choose your license!” by Barbara Klute and Jöran Muuß-Merholz, published under a href=https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/”>CC BY SA 3.0

Creative Commons has created the CC License Chooser, a tool to help you decide the best licence to use.

Applying a licence or CCO tool to your work

Before applying a licence, you need to understand that:

  • Creative Commons licences and the CCO tool can’t be withdrawn or cancelled (irrevocable). As soon as it is applied, anyone who uses it can utilise the specified licence for the time it is covered by copyright.[2]
  • You must be the copyright holder of that work, either as its creator or as someone who has control of the copyright. Only those who are the copyright owner or has permission from copyright owner can apply the licences or a CCO.

Your employer may be the copyright holder if you created the work as part of your job. Always check with your employer before applying any licences or CCO.[3]

To apply a licence or use the CCO tool

Once you have selected the licence that is appropriate for your requirements, provide details of the licence clearly to those who want to utilise your work. This can be done in a simple or more complex way.[4]

Ways to communicate the licence

Add text or statement

Create a copyright statement with text that states the licence and links to the licence (available from About CC licenses).

Reusing content statement. Text listed above image.
Screenshot of Psychology subject guide Creative Commons statement by The University of Queensland Library

Embed HTML code

Use the relevant HTML code to embed the licence details on your website. You can obtain the HTML code through the CC license chooser.[5]

Example of HTML code

This code could be used for Open Textbooks @ UQ guide and templates licence information

<p xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” xmlns:dct=”http://purl.org/dc/terms/”><a property=”dct:title” rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”https://uq.pressbooks.pub/uqtemplates/”>Open Textbooks @ UQ guide and templates</a> by <a rel=”cc:attributionURL dct:creator” property=”cc:attributionName” href=”https://www.library.uq.edu.au”>The Unversity of Queensland Library</a> is licensed under <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/?ref=chooser-v1″ target=”_blank” rel=”license noopener noreferrer” style=”display:inline-block;”>CC BY 4.0<img style=”height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;” src=”https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.svg?ref=chooser-v1″><img style=”height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;” src=”https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/by.svg?ref=chooser-v1″></a></p>[6]

Videos

Include your licence details in a statement at the start or finish of a video (brief sections called “bumpers”). Visit Creative Commons’ video bumper guidelines and examples of CC bumpers.[7]

Attribution video bumper example

CC BY video bumper (Vimeo, 5s) shows a bumper for a video

Is your work an adaptation or remix?

If the work is an adaptation or remix of an another Creative Commons work or contains elements of another work, you must think about what licences are compatible when choosing which one you will apply to that adaptation. The original parts of the work will still have the original licence applied to them. You will only have copyright, and the ability to licence, any new elements or formats.[8] This is called the Adapter’s Licence.

The original work has a NonCommercial (NC) licence element

NC or NonCommercial  It is recommended that your Adapter’s Licence includes the NC element [9].

The original work has a ShareAlike (SA) licence element

SA or Share-Alike  The SA licence element must be used in your Adapter’s Licence[10].

The original work has a No Derivatives (ND) licence element

ND or NoDerivs  It cannot be adapted or remixed [11].

Use the charts below to help choose the correct licence for your adaptation.

Adapters licence chart

Chart to highlighting which licences can be applied to adaptation
“Adapter’s License chart” by Creative Commons, published under by CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

CC license compatibility chart

Creative Commons licences compatibility
“CC License Compatibility Chart” by Kennisland, published under CC0 license via Wikimedia Commons

Attributing adaptations or remixes has more information about the correct way to attribute remixes and adaptations.

Icons:

Creative Commons license elements logos. Trademark: Creative Commons

  1. "4.1 Choosing and Applying a CC License"  by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  2. "About CC Licenses" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  3. "About CC Licenses" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  4. "About CC Licenses" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  5. "About CC Licenses" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  6. Example HTML code from "License Chooser" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  7. "4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  8. "4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  9. "4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  10. "4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵
  11. "4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work" by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0 ↵

Licence

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

UQ Open Textbooks Author Guide Copyright © by UQ Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.