| How to Attribute a Creative Commons Licensed Work Dec 11th 2012, 03:00 Through a Creative Commons license, authors choose how they would like to share their work. However, many don't specify exactly how they would like themselves attributed. If you come across content or images licensed with Creative Commons (like all of the content and images on wikiHow), it's your responsibility to credit the creator in the manner they specify. These instructions are clear in theory, but many people who apply CC licenses to their work do not specify how they would like to be attributed. In practice, here's how you can handle the attribution requirements when using Creative Commons licensed material. - Keep intact any copyright notices for the creative commons licensed work.
- If a work you're using has a notice that says "© 2008 Molly Kleinman", reproduce that notice when you credit the work.
- If such a notice does not appear, there is no need to select a specific notice. You should, however, add "Used with Permission.", or something to that effect. Remember that the lack of the © symbol does not mean it is not copyrighted––you will still need to acknowledge your usage and the source.
- Credit the author, licensor and/or other parties (such as a wiki or journal) in the manner they specify. If a creator has a note attached to her work that says, "Please attribute Molly Kleinman as the creator of this work," then attribute Molly Kleinman.
- If there is no note, but there is a copyright notice (see above), attribute the copyright holder named in the copyright notice.
- If there is no note or copyright notice but there is a user name, check the creator's profile to see if it specifies how to attribute the creator's work. If it doesn't, attribute the user name.
- If there is no creator or author name of any kind, but there is a website (like wikiHow), attribute the website by name.
- Use specific titles and links where possible. Include the following elements in most attributions:
- The title of the work: If the work has a title, call it by name. If it doesn't, you can just say "This work by Molly Kleinman…" or just "Untitled, by Molly Kleinman…". Use whatever seems appropriate and makes it clear where the work originated from.
- The URL for the work if applicable: Link back to the original source of the work. It can be argued that this is the most important part of the attribution notice. It can help creators keep track of places where their work appears by seeing what links are driving traffic to their websites. It also gives users of your work an easy way to track down the original source. If you're reproducing a CC-licensed work in a print format, you might prefer not to include a long and ugly URL, and there might be situations where leaving out a URL is appropriate. But in general, the link is the most valuable part of the attribution.
- The URL for the Creative Commons license: Link to the license. The original work should have a link to the license under which it was released; link to the same place. You do not need to include the full text of the license when you reproduce a CC-licensed work.
- Use the Creative Commons license builder for easy generation of a standard attribution. There is a clear standard way to format the attribution of a CC-licensed work:
- Go to http://creativecommons.org/choose/.
- Click on the button "Choose A License."
- Select the radio buttons that are appropriate for the license you need, fill in the lines that should be filled in, and then the button "Select A License" below. It will then display the full HTML that you should copy/paste to the page. The license image will appear on your page. As you fill in the license generator, there are blue help buttons that will explain each option as you go along.
- If, for any reason, you can't access the creative commons site to generate a license, simply add the following: "© CC- (?) 2008 Molly Kleinman). The information to be added in place of (?) can be found in the article How to use a creative commons license.
- The licenses do not require you to inform a creator that you are using her CC-licensed work, but it's a nice thing to do where it's possible. Most people are very happy to learn that someone is using and building upon their creations; that's why they use Creative Commons licenses in the first place.
- All attributions are CC-BY. Other designations are added as necessary.
- Licenses are occasionally updated. For example, the CC Attribution 2.0 Generic has been updated to CC Attribution 3.0 Unported, and CC Attribution 4.0 is scheduled for release at the end of 2012.[1] Although you still see the CC-BY attribution, the legal rights to use the license have changed. While you read CC-BY, the license is actually CC-BY 3.0, the 3.0 is not normally written because all CC-BY attributions must now conform to the 3.0 standards. While this is not a great big deal for most people, it is good to know in case the legal limitations change.
Edit Warnings - Just because the work is licensed under Creative Commons doesn't mean you can post in anywhere, or do whatever you want with it. If the license is CC-BY, attributing the work to the original author is all that you need. The following CC licenses, however, have additional restrictions or requirements:[2]
- Attribution-NoDerivs (You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.) Written CC-BY-ND.
- Attribution-ShareAlike (If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.) Written CC-BY-SA. (If you alter, transform, or build upon a Share Alike work you must still credit the original author by attribution.)
- Attribution-NonCommercial (You may not use this work for commercial purposes.) Written CC-BY-NC. Technically, unless otherwise specified, all CC licenses are Non Commercial.
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (You may not use this work for commercial purposes; you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.) Written CC-BY-NC-ND.
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (You may not use this work for commercial purposes; If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.) Written CC-BY-NC-SA. (If you alter, transform, or build upon a Share Alike work you must still credit the original author by attribution.) An important point to remember is that regardless of the license, the original attribution must accompany the object. © CC-SA-BY Molly Kleinman with alterations by John Jones is acceptable, but the © CC-SA-BY Molly Kleinman part is required.
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