In the context of public copyright licensing, the Creative Commons license is one of several licenses that permit the free distribution of otherwise copyrighted works. When an author wishes to give other people the right to share, use, and build on his or her work, he or she uses a Creative Commons license.

Creators who wish to share their works with the public can use a Creative Commons license rather than reserving all rights under copyright laws.
The Creative Commons legal tools have been designed to simplify complicated laws in a standardised manner so that they are as easy for non-lawyers to understand and apply as possible. Having a clear understanding of the fundamental legal principles presented in this unit will assist you in making better use of CC licenses and public domain tools.

The different CC licenses, designed to help accommodate the diverse needs of creators are described in following table..

Creative Commons licenses	Copy & Publish	Attribution Required	Commercial Use	Modify & Adapt	Change License
Public Domain Mark has no legal effect when applied to a work. It serves only as a label to inform the public about the public domain status of a work and is often used by museums, libraries and archives working with very old works.
“CC BY” allows people to use and adapt the work for any purpose (even commercially) as long as they give credit to the creator.
Share Alike license or “BY-SA” allows people to use and adapt the work for any purpose (even commercially), as long as they give credit to the creator and make any adaptations, they share with others available under the same or a compatible license.
No Derivatives license or “BY-ND” allows people to use the unadopted work for any purpose (even commercially), as long as they give credit to the creator. They may also adapt the work for their own personal use but may not share any adaptations publicly.
Non-Commercial license or “BY-NC” allows people to use the work, or adaptations of the work, for noncommercial purposes only, and only as long as they give credit to the creator.
Non-Commercial-Share-Alike license or “BY-NC-SA” allows people to use and adapt the work for noncommercial purposes only, and only as long as they give credit to the creator and make any adaptations, they share with others available under the same or a compatible license.
Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives license or “BY-NC-ND” is the most restrictive license offered by CC. It allows people to use the unadopted work for noncommercial purposes only, and only as long as they give credit to the creator. They may also adapt the work for their own personal use but may not share any adaptations publicly.

	can be redistributed (copy, publish, display, communicate, etc,)
	can be attributed to the original work
	you can use the work commercially
	you can modify and adapt the original work
	you can choose a license type for your adaptation of the work
	you are accepted to be used under any condition in you work