As an author and creator, you own the copyright to your original work. This protects you from other people reusing your work without your permission. If you would like others to be able to repost or adapt your work without asking for permission, you may apply a Creative Commons license to your work. You will have the option to add a Creative Commons license to your work on the Digital Commons Submission form.
Open licenses enable creators to proactively grant certain rights in advance while still retaining copyright. Creative Commons (CC) are open licenses.
Creative Commons licenses offer creators an opportunity to share your work under certain terms by applying a license, rather than traditional "All Rights Reserved" copyright. CC licenses are legal tools, built on copyright law. The CC License 4.0 version is international, while earlier versions (3.0, 2.5, 2.1, 2.0, and 1.0) are applied by country.
Creative Commons provides a set of copyright licenses and tools that can be adapted on varying levels set by the creator. CC currently has 6 licenses made from a combination of 4 elements:
To apply a Creative Commons license to your work, you must be the copyright holder/owner. If this is a group project, all group members must agree on applying the license.
Creative Commons licenses are not revokable. Once a CC license is applied to your work, someone who finds the work with that license can continue reusing it within the bounds of the license, even if you decide to later repost your work without the license.
The CC License Chooser guides you through the steps to choose the appropriate license for your work. It will also provide an image and license statement you can add to your poster, PowerPoint, paper, or other creative works. In addition, you'll be able to select a Creative Commons license on the Digital Commons Submission form which will be present on the Digital Commons cover page.
More information about the 6 licenses is also presented in the next box.
