Applying a CC license alone is not enough to ensure your work is freely available for easy reuse and remix.

Censorship Limitations by stevenpb dedicated to the public domain using CC0.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain why CC discourages changing the license terms
• Explain how a paywall affects CC-licensed content
• Describe why the technical format of content is significant
• Describe what happens when someone changes their mind about CC licensing

Big Question / Why It Matters

One of the most important aspects of Creative Commons licenses is that they are standardized. This makes it much easier for the public to understand how the licenses work and what reusers have to do to meet their obligations.

But CC licenses do not apply to works in a vacuum. CC-licensed works usually live on websites that have their own terms of service. Sometimes, they are not in formats that make it easy to reuse or adapt them. And the works are often available in hard copy form for a price.

Personal Reflection / Why It Matters to You

Have you ever found a CC-licensed work that you weren’t easily able to copy and share? What made it hard to reuse as intended? Was it an issue of format, or were there access restrictions on the work, or something else?

Acquiring Essential Knowledge

Creative Commons licenses are standardized licenses, which means the terms and conditions are the same for all works subject to the same type of CC license. This is an essential feature of their design, and it makes it simpler for everyone involved.

But people, institutions, and companies who use the licenses have diverse needs and wants. Sometimes creators want slightly different terms rather than the standard terms CC licenses offer.

We strongly discourage people from creating their own custom licenses because it creates confusion, requires users to take the time to learn about how the custom license differs, and erases the benefits of standardization. If you change any of the terms and conditions of the license, you cannot call it a Creative Commons license or otherwise use the CC trademarks. This rule also applies if you try to add restrictions on what people can do with CC-licensed work through your separate agreements, such as website terms of service. For example, your website’s terms of service can’t tell people they can’t copy a CC-licensed work (if they are complying with the license terms). You can, however, make your CC-licensed work available on more permissive terms. For example, you may waive your right to receive attribution.

Creative Commons has a detailed legal policy outlining these rules, but the best way to apply them is to ask yourself: is what you are wanting to do going to make it easier or harder for people to use your CC-licensed work? If the latter, then generally it’s a restriction and you can’t do it unless you remove the Creative Commons name from the equation.

Note that all of the above applies to creators of CC-licensed work. You can never change the legal terms that apply to someone else’s CC-licensed work.

Charging for a CC-licensed work

The first part of this lesson dealt with the requirements connected to changing the legal terms on a CC-licensed work, whether by actually changing the license terms or using separate contracts to try to do so.

But what if you simply want to sell a CC-licensed work?

If you are the creator, then this is always okay. In fact, selling physical copies (e.g., a textbook) and providing the digital copies for free is a very common method for making money while using CC licenses.

Here is a prominent example from CC’s Team Open feature, Max Temkin, founder of Cards Against Humanity:

Stack of Cards Against Humanity packs by jareed, licensed CC BY 2.0.

Charging for access to digital copies of a CC-licensed work is more difficult. It is permissible, but once someone pays for a copy of your work, she can legally distribute it to others for free under the terms of the applicable CC license.

If you are charging for access to someone else’s CC-licensed work—whether a physical copy or digital version—you have to pay attention to the particular CC license applied to the work. If the CC license includes the NonCommercial restriction, then you cannot charge the public to access the work.

Making your work accessible

Formats: Simply applying a CC license to a creative work does not necessarily make it easy for others to reuse and remix it. Think about what technical format you are using for your content (e.g., PDF? MP3?). Can people download your work? Can they easily edit or remix it if the license allows? In addition to the final polished version, many creators distribute editable source files of their content to make it easier for those who want to use the work for their own purposes. For example, in addition to the physical book or ebook, you might want to distribute files of a CC-licensed book that enable people to easily cut and paste the content into their own works.

DRM: Using a distribution platform that applies digital rights management (DRM) (such as copy protection technology) to your work is another way you can inadvertently make it very hard for reusers to make use of the permissions in the CC license. If you have to upload your CC-licensed works to a platform that uses DRM, consider also distributing the same content on sites that do not use DRM.

Note that the CC licenses prohibit you from applying DRM to someone else’s CC-licensed work without their permission.

What if you change your mind about the CC license?

Inevitably, there are creators who apply a CC license to a work and then later decide they want to offer it on different terms. Even though the original license cannot be revoked, the creator is free to also offer the work under a different license. Similarly, the creator is free to remove the copy of the work they placed online.

In those cases, anyone who finds the work under the original license is legally permitted to use it under those terms until the copyright expires. As a practical matter, reusers may want to comply with the creator’s new wishes as a matter of respect.

Final remarks

Sharing your content using Creative Commons licenses is a great thing to do, but that alone isn’t enough to make it easy for others to reuse and remix your work. Spend some time thinking from the perspective of someone who finds your shared content. How easy is it for them to reuse it? What can they do with it? Are there legal or technical obstacles that make it difficult for them to do the things the CC license is designed to allow?