Creative Courses come from creative ideas and creative resources.
But sometimes a tight budget can seem to limit the potential of your creativity.
As a teacher myself I know how important and sometimes hard it is to keep students engaged in learning while making the experience fun and doing it on a tight budget does not make it easier.
Being on a tight budget myself I looked for new ways to do with what I had and searched out free resources. I discovered many free resources for teaching and will shared them with you so you can use them too.
At DIYversity we make sure you are not alone. Just as we are helping charities and students in tight situations we are also dedicated in helping our teachers.
We offer new and free ways to juice up your courses for free. And thats where Creative Commons becomes your second best friend (after DIYversity of course)
To start I like to share with you about whats available to you through Creative Commons.
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.
Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses let you easily change your copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”
Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.
What can Creative Commons do for me?
If you want to give people the right to share, use, and even build upon a work you’ve created, you should consider publishing it under a Creative Commons license. CC gives you flexibility (for example, you can choose to allow only non-commercial uses) and protects the people who use your work, so they don’t have to worry about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the conditions you have specified.
If you’re looking for content that you can freely and legally use, there is a giant pool of CC-licensed creativity available to you. There are hundreds of millions of works — from songs and videos to scientific and academic material — available to the public for free and legal use under the terms of our copyright licenses, with more being contributed every day.
If you would like to see what kinds of companies and organizations are using Creative Commons licenses, visit our Who Uses CC? page.
If you would like to learn more about the different CC licenses, visit our licenses page.
For those creators wishing to opt out of copyright altogether, and to maximize the interoperability of data, Creative Commons also provides tools that allow work to be placed as squarely as possible in the public domain.
The goal of Creative Commons, according to its website, is “to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in the ‘commons’—the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.”
1. What do Creative Commons licenses do?
Creative Commons licenses allow their holders to grant broad permission to others to share, remix, use commercially, or otherwise use their work without having to ask specific authorization for each use.
This makes it “easier for people to share and build upon the works of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.” Lawrence Lessing, Stanford Law professor and founder of Creative Commons, is a long-time advocate of information freedom and copyright reform.
2. How do Creative Commons licenses interact with copyright?
Creative Commons licenses work alongside the rules of copyright, allowing you to authorize a more free usage of your work and choose the protection that best suits your needs. Creative Commons licenses apply to any work covered by copyright law.
- By using a Creative Commons license, you do not give up your copyright; you still own your work.
- Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright registration—they apply in addition to copyright.
- Even if you’re using a Creative Commons license, it is advisable to register your copyright so you can protect your work from unauthorized uses through the courts.
Think of copyright as an “all rights reserved” option in which you hold all rights—something that you may desire if you don’t want anyone taking, using, and potentially making money off of your work. A Creative Commons license, on the other hand, offers a “some rights reserved” option, which permits certain uses of your work under particular conditions that you choose. The options are described below.
3. Are all Creative Commons licenses the same?
No. Creative Commons offers six different licenses, each allowing different uses of your work:
- Attribution: The most permissive Creative Commons license allowing others to use, distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work—even for profit—so long as you are given credit for the original in the way you request.
- Attribution Share Alike: Very similar to the Attribution license. You permit others to use, distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work—even commercially—provided you are given credit in the way you request for the original, but this license also requires the user to license all new creations under identical terms (meaning any new creations may also be used for profit); this is often compared to open source software licenses.
- Attribution No Derivatives: Permits others to redistribute—including commercially—your work so long as you are credited in the way you request and the work remains whole and unchanged.
- Attribution Non-Commercial: Allows others to use, distribute, remix, tweak, or build upon your work non-commercially so long as you are given credit in the way you request. Derivative works do not have to carry the same license (meaning future derivative works can be commercial).
- Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike: Permits others to use, distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially so long as you are given credit in the way you request and the new works are licensed under the same terms.
- Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives: Closest to traditional copyright, this is the most restrictive Creative Commons license and allows others only to redistribute your work non-commercially so long as it remains unchanged and you are given credit in the way you request; often called “free advertising” because people can download and share your work freely.
4. What are the pros and cons of using Creative Commons licenses?
Each specific Creative Commons license has its pros and cons depending on your situation, but the biggest overall pros to Creative Commons licenses are that they are free and rather easy to use. You simply go to the Creative Commons website to decide which license meets your needs and then attach the appropriate symbol to your work.
Creative Commons licenses also encourage others to use and redistribute your work, which can create publicity for you.
The biggest con in using Creative Commons licenses is that in all but the two most restrictive licenses, you grant permission to use your work ahead of time, so you can never be sure who is using your work or making money from it.
Any content licensed under Creative Commons can be used by others without compensating you for the use. However, Creative Commons licenses are non-exclusive, so you can still license the same content under a different agreement if you choose.
5. Who uses Creative Commons licenses?
The music industry, especially aspiring artists, are particularly drawn to Creative Commons licenses because of the prevalence of remixing and “mash-ups,” which are great ways for new artists to gain exposure. Many of the licenses also allow an artist to keep her options open if she isn’t sure what she’ll want to do with her work in the future.
Bloggers and other online presences are also increasingly turning to Creative Commons in the spirit of share and share alike into a voluntary public domain.
More info:
This portion of the site is for informational purposes only. The content is not legal advice. The statements and opinions are the expression of author, not LegalZoom, and have not been evaluated by LegalZoom for accuracy, completeness, or changes in the law.
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that works to
increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and
scientific content) available in “the commons” — the body of
work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use,
repurposing, and remixing.
How Does Creative Commons Work?
Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use legal tools that
give everyone from individual “user generated content” creators
to major companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to
pre-clear usage rights to creative work they own the copyright to.
CC licenses let people easily change their copyright terms from
the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”
Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copy right
They apply on top of copyright, so you can modify your copyright terms
to best suit your needs. We’ve collaborated with copyright experts
all around the world to ensure that our licenses work globally.
Getting a Creative Commons license is easy. Visit our Web
site at creativecommons.org and click “License Your Work.”
Based on your answers to a few quick questions, we’ll give you
a license that clearly communicates to people what you will and
won’t allow them to do with your creativity. It only takes a few
minutes and it’s totally free. Our Web site also contains an FAQ
that answers many of the most common questions about how
CC licenses work.
What Can Creative Commons Do for Me?
If you’ve created something and want people to know that you’re
happy to have them share, use, and build upon your work, you
should consider publishing under a Creative Commons license.
CC’s legal infrastructure gives you flexibility (for example, you
can choose to only pre-clear noncommercial uses) and protects
the people who use your work (so that they don’t have to worry
about copyright infringement, as long as they abide by the terms
you have specified).
If you’re an artist, student, educator, scientist, or other creator
looking for content that you can freely and legally use, there is a
giant pool of CC-licensed creativity available to you. There are
many millions of works — from songs and videos to scientific
and academic content — that you can use under the terms of our
copyright licenses.
Who Uses Creative Commons Licenses?
Major media and technology companies, leading universities,
top scientists, and world-renowned artists all take advantage of
the Creative Commons approach to copyright. Most importantly,
there are millions of “regular” people around the world who use
CC licenses to help increase the depth, breadth, and quality of
creativity that is available to everyone for free and legal use.
How Is Creative Commons Funded?
Financial support for Creative Commons comes from
organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, the
Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation. CC also receives contributions from
members of the public
— people just like you who value the open,
collaborative exchange of culture and knowledge.
Where Can I Find Out More About Creative Commons?
There is much more information, including a number of helpful
videos about Creative Commons, on our Web site. Please visit
us at creativecommons.org to learn more about what we do and
how we do it
What are the different types of Creative Commons Licenses?
Creative Commons license applied to them. Creative Commons licenses enable members to grant copyright permissions on their videos so others can copy, distribute, edit, remix, and build upon them while giving credit to the original video’s creator. Learn more about Creative Commons.
- Attribution: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work—and derivative works based upon it—but only if they give credit the way you request.
- Share Alike: You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
- Non-Commercial: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work—and derivative works based upon it—but for non-commercial purposes only.
- No Derivative Works: You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.
- Public Domain Dedication: The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
Be creative on how you use our resources. And Create Creative Courses with Creative Commons
Say that 10 times fast!
