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Choose a License for Your Work

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I hereby waive all copyright and related or neighboring rights together with all associated claims and causes of action with respect to this work to the extent possible under the law.

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Confused? Need Help?

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses are legal tools that help you grant copyright permissions to the general public. Our CC legal tools include six different licenses and one public domain dedication tool. It is important to specify which one of the 7 legal tools you are applying to your material. The license chooser can help you decide which license is right for you.

CC licenses may be applied to any type of copyrightable work. The only types of works for which CC does not recommend its licenses are computer software and hardware, where we recommend a standard free software license instead. For works that are already in the public domain we recommend that you mark them with the Public Domain Mark. If you hold the rights to a work but would like to place it into the public domain, you can use the Chooser to select CC0.

How to apply a Creative Commons license

You can license your work by marking it with the specific CC license you choose. This marking can be as simple as a bit of text stating the license in a copyright notice, or as complex as embedding the license information on your website using the HTML code associated with the particular license. We strongly recommend including a link to the applicable license (e.g., https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

What should I consider?

As a creator licensing a work, among other considerations, you should:

What do the icons mean?

The icons represent key features of the different CC license options:

Attribution Required (BY): Credit must be given to you, the creator.
Commercial Use Not Allowed (NC/NonCommercial): Only noncommercial use of your work is permitted. Noncommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.
Distributed on Same Terms (SA/ShareAlike): Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.
Modifying Not Allowed (ND/NoDerivatives): No derivatives or adaptations of your work are permitted.

What if I have other questions?

You can find a full list of our frequently asked questions on our site. If your questions or concerns are not answered there, you can email us at legal@creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons

Choose a License for Your Work

CC0 1.0

CC0 1.0 Universal

CC-BY 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

CC BY-SA 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

CC BY-ND 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

CC BY-NC 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International