Skip to Main Content UMKC University Libraries

Creative Commons For Faculty and Student Writers

Explains the Creative Commons model of licensing, and collects sites of freely-available resources for use in the classroom.

 

Before choosing a CC license, there are a few things to consider:

  • Is the work copyrightable?  Some types of works, such as compilations of facts, cannot be copyrighted.

 

  • Do you have the rights?  If your work has been published elsewhere, for example, you may have signed over your copyrights to the publisher.  Also, if you have any co-authors, you can license only your contributions to the work, unless they also wish to license their parts.

 

  • CC licenses are irrevocable.  You can remove a CC license from your work if you change your mind, but if someone has already made use of your work, permission to use your work can not be revoked retrospectively.

 

  • Understand the terms of the license.

 

An easy-to use tool to help you decide which license will meet your need is available at the Creative Commons website. By answering a few questions about your intentions for your work, the License Chooser suggests an appropriate license.

 

(Note:  Filling out the optional "Attribution" section will ensure that anyone who makes use of your work will understand how you want the attribution to appear).