What are Creative Commons licenses?
Creative Commons licenses are a way for individual creators, businesses, and institutions (basically everyone) to let users know if they can reuse their materials and how they (the creators) would like to be acknowledged. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that gives creators a "standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law." Creative Commons licenses regulate: giving attribution, commercial and non-commercial uses, modifications, and whether or not you can reshare the modified work.
REMEMBER: Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, they build on existing copyright laws.
How can I use materials with Creative Commons licenses?
Before you use a piece of someone else's work (anything that they have created) make sure you know how to give attribution for that work. Some works have explicitly stated preferences for attribution like CC Licenses, other works are less clear. If you cannot find a CC License look for a page called "License" like this one on Unsplash or under "FAQs" or "Terms of Service". If a work does not have a CC License or other copyright information with it that does not mean it is free to use. Instead, try to find a comparable work with clear copyright information to use.
Remember: it is always best practice to provide attribution to the creator of the work, even if it is not technically required.
How to assign Creative Commons licenses to your own work
Why assign a license?
There are many benefits to assigning a CC license to your creative or academic works. One advantage of assigning a CC License to your work is that it enables you to clearly communicate if you want your work to be reused and if you do, how it is reused. Putting a CC License on your work also allows others to use it more easily which contributes to a culture of knowledge building and sharing.
What needs a license
You can assign a CC license to almost anything you create including art, presentations, online content, and research posters. It is a good idea to assign a CC License to your work if it is going to be made publicly available online. For more information on how to assign a CC License to your work check out the Creative Commons License Chooser!
*If you are creating a research poster for the Student Research Conference, please assign your poster a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license so it can be shared with the NWP Community.