Creative Commons License Chooser
Pick the right CC licence, mark your work, and credit other people’s CC works correctly.
Choose a licence for your work
CC BY 4.0
Attribution 4.0 International
Read the licence summary (opens in a new tab) Legal code (opens in a new tab)
Reusers may
Reusers must
Reusers may not
Details for the mark optional — title, your name, links, year
Tick both boxes above to get the licence mark.
How the mark reads
Paste it next to the work, or in the footer to mark a whole page or blog. The icons load from Creative Commons’ servers.
Credit a Creative Commons work you reuse
Title, Author, Source, Licence — the four parts Creative Commons recommends. Copy them from the page where you found the work.
How the credit reads
Can two works be combined in one remix?
The whole chart: the licence a remix of the two may carry
| Licence of one work | CC0 | BY | BY-SA | BY-NC | BY-NC-SA | BY-ND | BY-NC-ND |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC0 | Any | BY or stricter | BY-SA | BY-NC or stricter | BY-NC-SA | No | No |
| BY | BY or stricter | BY or stricter | BY-SA | BY-NC or stricter | BY-NC-SA | No | No |
| BY-SA | BY-SA | BY-SA | BY-SA | No | No | No | No |
| BY-NC | BY-NC or stricter | BY-NC or stricter | No | BY-NC or stricter | BY-NC-SA | No | No |
| BY-NC-SA | BY-NC-SA | BY-NC-SA | No | BY-NC-SA | BY-NC-SA | No | No |
| BY-ND | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| BY-NC-ND | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
“Or stricter” means that licence or one with more conditions (“BY-NC or stricter”: BY-NC, BY-NC-SA or BY-NC-ND). CC0 stands for public-domain material too (the Public Domain Mark). The chart follows Creative Commons’ license compatibility chart (opens in a new tab).
For general information only, not legal advice. Templates are generic starting points — have a qualified lawyer review anything you rely on.
About the Creative Commons License Chooser
Creative Commons licences let you share a photo, an illustration, a song, an article or a course and say in advance what others may do with it. There are six licences and the CC0 dedication, built from four elements: BY (credit the creator), NC (noncommercial use only), SA (adaptations under the same terms) and ND (no adaptations). Answer four questions and the chooser names the licence that matches, explains what reusers may and may not do, and gives you the licence link, an HTML mark for a web page and a plain-text notice for print, slides and video credits — in the format Creative Commons’ own chooser uses.
Reusing someone else’s CC work? Switch to Credit a work: enter the title, the author, where you found it and its licence, say whether you changed it, and get an attribution line that follows Creative Commons’ recommended practices — Title, Author, Source, Licence (TASL) — as linked HTML and as plain text. Combine works tells you whether two CC works can be remixed into one and which licence the remix may carry. Everything runs in your browser.
How to use it
- Under License my work, answer the four questions: must people credit you, may they use the work commercially, may they share adapted versions, and must those adaptations be shared under the same licence. Already know the licence? Pick it from the list instead.
- Read the result: the licence’s full name, what reusers may and may not do, and where it is accepted (of the Creative Commons tools, Wikimedia Commons, for example, takes only CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA). Tick the two confirmations — you own the rights, and you understand the licence can’t be revoked.
- Optionally add the title, your name, links to the work and to you, and the year. Copy the licence link, the HTML mark (with the CC icons) or the plain-text notice.
- To credit a CC work you reuse, choose Credit a work, fill in the title, author, source address and licence (with its version), and say whether you used it unchanged, made a small change such as a crop, or made an adaptation. Copy the line as HTML or as plain text with the addresses written out.
- To check a remix, choose Combine works and pick the licences of the two works: the answer says whether they can be combined and under which licences the result may be shared.
Examples
Credit: yes · Commercial use: yes · Adaptations: yes · Same licence for adaptations: no
“Sunset over Kochi by Asha Menon is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/”
“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by Timothy Vollmer, CC BY 4.0, cropped
“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by Timothy Vollmer, used under CC BY 4.0 / Cropped from original.
Creative Commons uses this photo as its own example of a good attribution; the title, the name and “CC BY 4.0” are links in the HTML version.
A CC BY-SA 4.0 image and a CC BY-NC 4.0 text
They can’t be combined: BY-SA requires the remix to allow commercial use, which the NonCommercial work forbids.
Credit: no
CC0 1.0 Universal — you waive your copyright as far as the law allows; the mark reads “… is marked CC0 1.0”.
Common uses
- Choosing a licence for photos, illustrations, music, videos, course material, slides or a blog before you publish.
- Writing the credit line for a CC photo in an article, a presentation, a YouTube description or a book.
- Checking whether a Wikipedia image (CC BY-SA) can go into a noncommercial booklet or a commercial product.
- Teaching students how to reuse openly licensed material and credit it properly.
The six licences and CC0, from most to least permissive
- CC BY — reusers may distribute, remix, adapt and build on the work in any medium, even commercially, as long as they credit you.
- CC BY-SA — the same, but adaptations must be licensed under the same or a compatible licence. Wikipedia’s text uses it.
- CC BY-ND — copying and sharing only in unadapted form, commercial use allowed, with credit.
- CC BY-NC — any reuse and adaptation, for noncommercial purposes only, with credit.
- CC BY-NC-SA — noncommercial, with credit, and adaptations under the same terms.
- CC BY-NC-ND — the most restrictive: unadapted copies only, noncommercial, with credit.
- CC0 — not a licence but a public domain dedication: you give up your copyright and related rights as far as the law allows, with a fallback licence where a waiver is not possible. Trademark and patent rights are not affected.
“Noncommercial” means “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation”, and it turns on the use, not on who the reuser is.
How to credit a CC work: TASL
Creative Commons recommends that an attribution names the Title, the Author (or whoever the licensor asks you to credit — an organisation, a pseudonym), the Source (a link to the page where the work is, not a shortened link) and the Licence, linked to its deed. Under the 4.0 licences the credit may be given in any reasonable way for the medium — a link to a page with the details can be enough — and the title is optional; licences of version 3.0 and earlier require the title when one is supplied. Say when you changed the work (“Cropped from original”), and for an adaptation say what it is adapted from and which licence you give it. Works under CC0 or the Public Domain Mark need no credit, but naming the creator and the collection is good practice. The legal code of CC BY 4.0 (section 3) sets out exactly what must be kept.
Remixing works under different licences
- NoDerivatives material can’t be adapted, so it can’t be part of a remix (it can sit unchanged next to other works in a collection).
- ShareAlike fixes the licence of the remix: BY-SA material keeps BY-SA, BY-NC-SA keeps BY-NC-SA. For BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons also lists GPLv3 (one way) and the Free Art License 1.3 as compatible.
- BY-SA and NonCommercial material can’t be combined: BY-SA requires a licence that allows commercial use, NC forbids it.
- Otherwise the remix takes at least the most restrictive terms of the two, as in Creative Commons’ compatibility chart: BY with BY-NC gives a NonCommercial remix; CC0 and public-domain material add no conditions.
Before you apply a licence
- You must own the rights, or be authorised to license them. A CC licence covers only the rights you hold; mark clearly any third-party material in your work that is under other terms.
- It can’t be taken back. CC licences and CC0 are not revocable. You may stop distributing the work, but anyone who already has a copy may keep using it on the licence’s terms.
- It covers copyright, not everything. Privacy, publicity and moral rights, trademarks and patents are not licensed, so a CC photo of a person may still need their consent for some uses.
- Not for software. Creative Commons recommends against its licences for software and points to free and open-source licences instead — see the Open Source License Generator; CC0 is acceptable for software and is GPL-compatible.
- Where it can go. Of the Creative Commons tools, Wikimedia Commons accepts only CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA (and public-domain works, such as those marked with the Public Domain Mark), so NC or ND works can’t be uploaded there.
- Use the 4.0 version: Creative Commons recommends it over all earlier versions.
Sources
The licence texts and guidance come from Creative Commons, which publishes the licences:
- Creative Commons: About CC licenses
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — deed and legal code
- CC0 1.0 Universal deed
- Creative Commons: Recommended practices for attribution
- Creative Commons: license compatibility chart
- Creative Commons: ShareAlike compatible licenses
- Creative Commons: NonCommercial interpretation
- Creative Commons: Frequently asked questions
- Wikimedia Commons: Licensing
Limitations
- The chooser explains the licences; it can’t tell whether you own the rights to a work, whether a work found online really carries the licence shown next to it, or whether a particular use counts as commercial. For those questions, ask the rights holder or a lawyer.
- For your own work it offers the 4.0 licences and CC0, as Creative Commons does. For crediting, it covers versions 4.0, 3.0 (Unported), 2.5 and 2.0 (Generic); for a ported licence with a country in its name, use the name and address shown on the work’s own licence badge.
- The HTML mark shows Creative Commons’ icons, which load from mirrors.creativecommons.org on the page where you paste it; the plain-text notice works anywhere.
- It does not cover other licences, such as the GPL or MIT licences for software or stock-photo licences.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
Which licence lets people use my work commercially but still credit me?
CC BY. If you also want any adaptations to stay open under the same terms, choose CC BY-SA. Both are accepted by Wikimedia Commons and most open-content projects.
What is the difference between CC0 and CC BY?
Under CC BY you keep your copyright and reusers must credit you. With CC0 you waive your copyright as far as the law allows, so nobody has to credit you or ask permission for anything.
Can I change the licence later?
You can release new copies under other terms, but you can’t revoke a CC licence or CC0 for people who already have the work: they may keep using it under the licence they received.
Do I need to register my work anywhere?
No. Creative Commons does not ask you to register, and no copyright office registration is needed to apply a licence: you mark the work with the licence, for example with the HTML mark or the plain-text notice from this page.
What happens if someone uses my CC work without crediting me?
They are in breach of the licence, and under the 4.0 licences their rights end automatically. Their rights come back automatically if they fix the problem within 30 days of discovering it (section 6(b)), or if you reinstate them; your other remedies are not affected.
Do I have to include the title when I credit a work?
Under the 4.0 licences the title is optional, though Creative Commons recommends it. Licences of version 3.0 and earlier require the title when the licensor supplied one.
Can I use a CC BY-NC photo on a company blog?
NonCommercial depends on the primary purpose of the use, not on who you are: no kind of reuser is automatically allowed or excluded. A use primarily intended for commercial advantage — advertising a product, for example — is not allowed; when you are unsure, ask the creator for permission.