What is CC BY-NC-SA 3.0?

Foreword

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0) license: a summary of the license that ordinary people can understand.

License

Creative Commons, abbreviated as CC, is officially known as 知识共享 (Knowledge Sharing) in mainland China and 創用 CC in Taiwan. It is a non-profit organization and a method of licensing creative works. The main purpose of this organization is to increase the accessibility of creative works as a basis for others to create and share, and to find appropriate laws to uphold these ideas. Starting with version 3.0, the original licenses were written under international law and related practices, known as the "unported version". Teams in each jurisdiction then translate and adapt them according to local law into the applicable version for that jurisdiction.

Applying a Creative Commons license to your own work does not mean you give up your copyright. Rather, it grants part of your rights to users in the public domain under specific conditions. Creative Commons licenses allow authors to choose different licensing terms and copyright agreements drafted under the copyright laws of different countries. The copyright holder may specify the following conditions:

Attribution

You allow others to reproduce, distribute, exhibit, perform, screen, broadcast, or communicate to the public through information networks your copyrighted works and derivative works, provided that others retain your attribution of the original work.

For example: Jane used the "Attribution" license term on her photographs because she wants others to respect her credit when using her pictures. Bob found her photograph online and wants to display it on the homepage of his website. In this case, Bob may place Jane's picture on his website, as long as he clearly indicates that Jane is the author.

NonCommercial

You allow others to reproduce, distribute, exhibit, perform, screen, broadcast, or communicate to the public through information networks your copyrighted works and derivative works, but only for non-commercial purposes.

For example: Gus published his photograph on his website under a license containing the "NonCommercial" element. In this case, Camille may print and use Gus's photo. However, without Gus's permission, Camille may not sell the printed photo.

NoDerivatives

You allow others to reproduce, distribute, exhibit, perform, screen, broadcast, or communicate to the public through information networks your work unaltered, but they may not create derivative works.

For example: Sarah used a license containing the "NoDerivatives" element on one of her songs. Joe wants to excerpt segments of Sarah's song and mix them into his own work to create a brand-new song. In this case, without Sarah's permission, Joe may not do so (unless his use constitutes fair use).

ShareAlike

You allow others to distribute their derivative works only if they apply to those derivative works the same license as your original work.

PS: A license may not contain both the "ShareAlike" and "NoDerivatives" elements; the "ShareAlike" element applies only to derivative works.

For example: Gus's online photograph is under a license containing the "NonCommercial" and "ShareAlike" elements. Camille is an amateur abstract collage artist. She takes Gus's photo and uses it in one of her collage works. In this case, Camille must, as required by the license applied to Gus's work, apply to her collage work a license containing the "NonCommercial" and "ShareAlike" elements, publishing her work under the same license Gus chose.

If the "NonCommercial" term is not specified, commercial use of the work is permitted; if "ND" is not specified, creating derivative works is permitted. These different conditions produce 16 combinations, of which 4 are invalid because they include the mutually exclusive "ND" and "SA" together; 1 license without any of the above conditions is equivalent to the public domain. In versions above CC 2.0, 5 licenses without the attribution term were also deprecated, because 98% of licensors require attribution. After simplification, 6 licenses remain:

1. Attribution (BY)
2. Attribution (BY)-NoDerivatives (ND)
3. Attribution (BY)-NonCommercial (NC)
4. Attribution (BY)-NonCommercial (NC)-NoDerivatives (ND)
5. Attribution (BY)-NonCommercial (NC)-ShareAlike (SA)
6. Attribution (BY)-ShareAlike (SA) Cc-bynewwhite.svg