Having recently embarked on the path leading to Creative Commons certification, I’ve decided to share my logbook with you, as and when I complete the training units. This fourth article will help you understand how to choose a CC license for your own creations, and how to collect & adapt other CC-licensed works. Don’t hesitate to let me know what you think: as always, I’ll be happy to share more of what I’ve learned & resources on the subject.

— Using CC licenses

☕ Make the right choice before getting started

It’s certainly a pleonasm, but the point is to make sure that you own the rights to the original work, otherwise you can’t assign a CC license. Note that these licenses, and the CC0 tool, are irrevocable, meaning that “you can never change the legal terms that apply to work standardized under the CC license”, whether it’s your own creations or those of other creators. To help you choose the license that’s right for you, use the standardized CC license selector → https://chooser-beta.creativecommons.org

  • What if you change your mind? You are completely free, not to modify the license you originally applied (as it is irrevocable), but rather to propose another license for the same creation (and to delete the old version from your resources). The original work can still be used under the previous conditions until the copyright expires.

  • And if you don’t like the work derived from your creation, you have the right to ask to have your attribution information removed from the derived work.

It is essential to think about the user of the work: what do you want to do to facilitate his or her use of the works you release under a CC license? As you also know, placing content under a CC license isn’t enough to facilitate its re-use: the available format counts for a lot (PDF versus OpenDocument, source image file versus compressed JPEG file…).

🎯 Apply precisely to your work

Publish the award notice distinctly, using the icons and license badges available on creativecommons.org/mission/downloads/ ↗ .

For a website, you can explicitly state (in the footer, for example) that “unless otherwise indicated, the content of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license”. To go even further, you can copy and paste the standardized source code from the license selector to integrate the metadata:

<p xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
	<a property="dct:title" rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://ceci-est-en-exemp.le">Autoportrait mou avec lard fumé</a>
	par <span property="cc:attributionName">Salvador Dali</span>
	est accessible sous licence
	<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="license noopener noreferrer" style="display:inline-block;">Attribution - Partage selon les mêmes conditions 4.0 International <img style="height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;" src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.svg" /><img style="height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;" src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/by.svg" /><img style="height:22px!important;margin-left:3px;vertical-align:text-bottom;" src="https://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/sa.svg" />
	</a>
</p>

🔎 Finding CC-licensed works

To create collections or remixes from existing material, you need to find works under CC or Public Domain licenses. Here are a few leads:

📜 Clear attribution

It’s essential to display the work’s attribution as intelligibly as possible. This applies both to your own original productions and to the works of others that you re-use.

For maximum clarity & legibility, Creative Commons recommends using the TASL method, for :

  • [T] Title of work: explicit & specific name of the work
  • [A] Attribution: last name / first name / pseudonym (…) identifying the author(s) (don’t just give the name of the organization or institution, but also specify who produced the work within this organization).
  • [S] Source: precise origin of the material, ideally with a link to the source
  • [L] License: full or simplified name of the license and link to the reference legal notice

In the following chapters, we’ll explain the specific terms and conditions of attribution.

—

📚 Best Practices for Attribution ↗ , Creative Commons Wiki, 2022, CC BY 4.0 | Marking your Work with a CC License ↗ , Creative Commons Wiki, 2019, CC BY 4.0

— Collections

📖 Definition

A collection is a curation, a compilation. It aims to group together distinct works, under specific licenses, and clearly separates each work from its attribution. The collection thus created is intended to be distributed under license.

🤝 Usage

There’s no need to reconcile the different licenses here: simply display them clearly under each of the works used. You are free to choose the license under which you wish to distribute your collection, but this does not change the licenses applicable to the original material. The NC (Non Commercial) option is a condition for which you need to be vigilant: if one of the compiled works contains an NC limitation, then your collection will not be able to authorize commercial use.

📜 Attribution

Check the license compatibility table :
↓ Original Work Commercial Collection (BY, BY-SA, BY-ND) Non Commercial Collection (BY-NC, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC-ND)
CC0 ✅ ✅
CC BY ✅ ✅
CC BY-SA ✅ ✅
CC BY-NC   ✅
CC BY-NC-SA   ✅
CC BY-ND ✅ ✅
CC BY-NC-ND   ✅

—

📚 If I create a collection that includes a work offered under a CC license, which license(s) may I choose for the collection? ↗ , Creative Commons FAQ

🐱 Example of collection

Personal example of collection ↗ [PDF 750ko], Page 1 → presentation of a collection of 6 photographs of cats from Flickr. 5 images are available under CC BY 4.0 and 1 under CC0. I make sure that these licenses are compatible with the license I wish to assign to the collection (CC BY 4.0), using the table above as a guide. Here’s the attribution statement for the collection (each work is itself attributed on the document, thus displaying original works and respective attributions together) :

“Cats everywhere”, a non-exhaustive collection of cats, gathered by GuR for 2023 Creative Commons Certification, under CC BY 4.0 license ↗

— Remix

📖 Definition

A remix is an adaptation, otherwise known as a derivative work, or composite work. It involves mixing parts or all of a work with parts or all of other works to create a new derivative and composite work that includes material from many sources.

For a derivative work to be compatible with copyright, the legislator requires that “the creator of the adaptation adds original expression to the pre-existing work”. However, this notion of originality is not clearly defined in international law, and varies from country to country:

  • in France or Germany (under Civil Law jurisdiction), the derivative work must contain an imprint of the adapter’s personality
  • in the United States or Canada (under Common Law jurisdiction), the derivative work must contain a minimum level of creativity and “independent conception”.

In French law, remix fall under the “plural works” regime. A composite or derivative work is defined, according to the article L. 113-2 alinea 2 of the Intellectual Property Code ↗ , as “a new work into which a pre-existing work is incorporated without the collaboration of the author of the latter” (e.g. an adaptation, a translation…). Remix implies the incorporation of an old work into a new work: this can be material (incorporating music into a multimedia work) or intellectual (a painting inspired by a passage in a novel). Remix is thus the property of the author who created it, subject to the rights of the author of the pre-existing work (CPI, art. L. 113-4 ). The authorization of the author of the original work is therefore mandatory, unless the latter has fallen into the public domain or its author has assigned certain rights under a Creative Commons license or tool. Finally, the author of the second work must respect the moral rights of the author of the first work.

🤝 Usage

The creation of derivative works requires prior verification that the original work(s) does not have an option making modifications impossible (“No Derivatives” option). It is also explicitly requested to indicate that the original work (also credited) has been modified, so that the derivative work is not attributed to the original author. Important fundamental principle as of version 4.0: “all CC licenses, even No Derivatives (ND) licenses, allow anyone to make an adaptation of a CC-licensed work”. It is therefore possible to create an adaptation of a creation under the ND option, for personal & private use only: distribution of the derivative work remains prohibited.

→ Remix from a unique work

In the event that you wish to create and distribute a derivative work from a single existing CC-licensed work, you are required to select a new license, called an adapter license, which is compatible with the limitations of the remixed work. You must credit the original work as well as the adaptation you have made.

→ Remix from numerous works

tableau de compatibilité des licences Creative Commons License Compatibility Chart | Mzeinstra (Wiki CC) CC0

If you wish to create and distribute a derivative work from several existing CC-licensed works, you are required to :

  • ensure that the licenses of the original works are compatible with each other, to avoid contradictory terms: use the CC license compatibility table ↗ by searching for the 2 most restrictive licenses on the works you are combining (allowing you to best achieve your openness objectives)
  • select a new license, called an adapter license, which is compatible with the limitations of the remixed works ==> ex: CC BY-NC-SA is not adaptable to CC BY-SA because the derivative work cannot be commercialized
  • credit each of the original works as well as the adaptation made.

📜 Attribution

To help you assign your derivative work, check the table of licenses for adaptation (below). The rows on the left show the licenses for the original works, while the columns on the right indicate the license you can assign to your adaptation: ✅ when possible, ➖ when not recommended, blank when not possible.
↓ Original Work CC0 BY BY-SA BY-NC BY-NC-SA BY-ND BY-NC-ND
CC0 ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
CC BY ➖ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
CC BY-SA     ✅        
CC BY-NC ➖ ➖ ➖ ✅ ✅ ➖ ✅
CC BY-NC-SA         ✅    
CC BY-ND              
CC BY-NC-ND              

—

📚 Can I combine material under different Creative Commons licenses in my work? ↗ , Creative Commons FAQ | If I derive or adapt material offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I use? ↗ , Creative Commons FAQ

🐱 Example of remix from a unique work

Personal example of collection ↗ [PDF 750ko], Page 2 → presentation of an adaptation of a cat photo from Flickr, available under CC BY 4.0 license. I make sure that this license is compatible with the license I wish to assign to the derivative work (CC BY 4.0), using the table above as a guide. Here’s the attribution statement:

“Rainbow kitten”, a fancy remix by GuR for 2023 Creative Commons Certification under CC BY 4.0 license ↗ , based on the original work “Kitten!” shared by Clara S. on Flickr ↗ under CC BY 4.0 license ↗

🐱 Example of remix from numerous works

Personal example of collection ↗ [PDF 750ko], Page 3 → presentation of a work derived from 6 photographs of cats from Flickr. 5 images are available under CC BY 4.0 and one under CC0. I check that these licenses are compatible with each other, and particularly with the license I wish to assign to the derivative work (CC BY 4.0), using the table above as a guide. Here is the attribution statement for the derivative work (each work is itself attributed on the document on page 1, thus displaying the original works and their respective attributions together):

“Space Cats”, a meme inspired remix by GuR for 2023 Creative Commons Certification, under CC BY 4.0 license ↗ , based on numerous original photographies (see “Cats everywhere” for original source credits ; background image “The Lagoon Nebula” by NASA / ESA / STScl from Hubble Space Telescope Images Library ↗ under CC BY 4.0 license ↗ )

— Insidious appropriation considerations

Web and social networking platforms such as Flickr and Vimeo sometimes have their own CC-licensing tools. Some of them, however, will ignore the license you wish to assign to your work by not providing any identification space for it. In this case, under the rules laid down by the Berne Convention, the absence of a license is tantamount (automatically) to maintaining copyright conditions without reservation (“all rights reserved”).

When all is said and done, these platforms, which operate more like advertising agencies than media or broadcasting spaces, display an assumed willingness to cannibalize creations according to the legal conditions set out in their General Terms of Use (GTU) - often one-sided, locked in most cases to the benefit of advertising models for the free monetization of such content. Use of the service (for example, as soon as a profile is created on a social network) de facto validates acceptance of these GTUs, which immediately place published content under the exclusive ownership and control of the company that owns the platform.

In order to try and protect yourself from these toxic appropriation strategies when you want to publish your content under a CC license, I invite you to :

  • change your platform, migrate to platforms based on community systems that work in the field of care (social, technological, legal, cultural…), that guarantee your freedom of choice, for example via platforms from Fediverse ↗ (source: “Guided tour of the Fediverse”, Audrey Guélou, for LibreCours, CC BY-SA) or from Wikimedia ecosystem ↗
  • clearly display the license and hyperlink to the reference notice (“make it visible & easy to find”), include metadata in the file
  • for images: display the license URL on the image
  • for audios: read aloud the license URL and conditions of use
  • for videos: include video screens (packshots / bumpers) that clearly display the license & its conditions

—

📚 Lionel MAUREL (Calimaq), Free your photos on Instagram by placing them under a Creative Commons license. Really? ↗ , including about the “I am Creative Commons” app, August 2012, CC0

… to be sontinued …

␥ Find out more

Article under CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Creative Commons icon Use, collect & adapt freely under Creative Commons license — CC-Cert Logbook 4/.

This article is published under CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution-ShareAlike license

→ You are free to :

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

→ Under the following terms :

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit with the title and the author's name of this article, provide a link to this article as well as a link to the license CC BY-SA 4.0, and indicate if changes were made

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license CC BY-SA 4.0 .

To credit this article :

« Use, collect & adapt freely under Creative Commons license — CC-Cert Logbook 4/., Guillaume Rouan, CC BY-SA 4.0 »
🔗 https://grouan.fr/en/2023/11/12/creative-commons-certification-unit4-utilisez-collectez-adaptez-librement-sous-licence-cc/
🔗 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.fr

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