Warnings, lawsuits, and court rulings have contributed to the uncertainty surrounding copyright. To what extent I may post, edit, or use in any way for my purposes third-party products on the Internet? First of all, it must be assumed that third content is protected by copyright and is not merely available to others for their use. Instead, permission would have to be requested every time. To counter this complicated and restrictive system with an alternative, Creative Commons created free licenses.
What is the Creative Commons, and what is their purpose?
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization. It was founded in 2001 to make copyright law more uncomplicated and more flexible. What sets the Internet apart is the inventiveness and artistic diversity it brings to life. Strict copyright rules limit this diversity. Creative Commons has the vision to develop the full potential of the Internet with its licenses.
The organization, therefore, developed a new licensing system. This includes standardized license agreements (the CC licenses), with the help of which one’s works can be released for use by others in an uncomplicated, targeted manner and therefore with few restrictions. Each author can decide for himself which conditions are attached to the application. Various license types have been developed for this purpose. These can refer to creative works of any kind, thus for pictures, texts, videos, etc..
DeSight Studio explains in this article which (CC) licenses exist and how to use them. The correct handling of (software) licenses presents many companies and people with considerable problems.
What are CC licenses available?
The company was founded in the USA, and the licenses were initially adapted to the American copyright. The permissions consist of a combination of four rights modules, which are illustrated by corresponding icons or a letter abbreviation:
● BY: Attribution (The author must be named.)
● NC: Non-commercial (no money may be earned with the work.)
● ND: No editing (no changes may be made.)
● SA: Distribution under the same conditions (If the work has been modified, it must be published under the same license.)
A suitable license can then be combined from these abbreviations. Because the ND and SA licenses are logically mutually exclusive, there are six possible licenses:
● BY
● BY-SA
● BY-ND
● BY-NC
● BY-NC-SA
● BY-NC-ND
In this way, the combinations of abbreviations determine the conditions under which the plant can be operated. For example, a work published under the BY-NC license may be edited and redistributed as long as the author’s name is mentioned, and no commercial purposes are pursued. Also, there is the Public Domain License (CC0), which allows the redistribution, editing, and general use of any kind without restriction. Together with the CC-BY and CC-BY-SA modules, this is a free license.
Professional association of the right journalists registered the association.
The Berufsverband der Rechtsjournalisten e.V. created this guest article and published by DeSight Studio GmbH. The BvDR registered association is the union of right journalists and attorneys from Germany, who publish legal contributions to most diverse topics on the portals anwalt.org, scheidung.org, abmahnung.org, and rechtsanwaltfachangestellte.org.