Print bookPrint book

The CC license elements and the six licenses

Site: Saylor University
Course: [CB DRAFT] OER101: Creative Commons and Open Licensing (Internal Training)
Book: The CC license elements and the six licenses
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Saturday, 12 September 2026, 9:14 AM

Table of contents

1. The CC license elements and the six licenses

1.2 The CC License Elements and the Six Licenses
LOs: [1b]
Once you understand that open licensing gives the public permission to reuse a work, the next question is what kind of permission is being given. Creative Commons licenses matter because they do not all allow the same actions. Learning their parts helps you recognize what you may do with a work and what conditions you must follow.
Building on 1.1 What Creative Commons Is and Why Open Licensing Enables OER, this subunit moves from the general idea of open licensing to the structure of the licenses themselves. In 1.1, you saw that a CC license lets a creator keep copyright while granting permission to the public. Here, you will see how those permissions change when different license elements are combined.
The source explains four license elements. BY (Attribution) means you must give credit to the creator. SA (ShareAlike) means that if you share an adaptation, you must use the same license. NC (NonCommercial) means the work may be used only for noncommercial purposes, meaning not primarily for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. ND (NoDerivatives) means adaptations may not be shared.
These elements combine into six licenses, from most to least permissive. CC BY allows reuse, remixing, and adaptation, even commercially, with attribution. CC BY-SA allows the same uses, but adaptations must carry the same license. CC BY-NC allows reuse and adaptation for noncommercial use, with attribution. CC BY-NC-SA adds both the noncommercial and share-alike conditions. CC BY-ND allows only verbatim sharing, even commercially, with attribution. CC BY-NC-ND is the most restrictive of the six, allowing only verbatim, noncommercial sharing with attribution.
A concrete instance from the source is the contrast between NC and ND. The source explains that each added element removes freedoms for the reuser: NC limits the purpose of reuse, while ND limits whether changed versions may be shared. That example helps you see that license differences are practical, not only theoretical. As you read, consider how adding one element at a time changes what a teacher, student, or institution could legally do with the same work.
Attribution
Title | Author | Source | License
About CC Licenses | Creative Commons | https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/ | CC BY 4.0

OUTPUT LICENSE: CC0 1.0

Callback before_footer in local_aigrade component should be migrated to new hook callback for core\hook\output\before_footer_html_generation
  • line 7225 of /lib/moodlelib.php: call to debugging()
  • line 7292 of /lib/moodlelib.php: call to {closure}()
  • line 71 of /lib/classes/hook/output/before_footer_html_generation.php: call to get_plugins_with_function()
  • line 987 of /lib/classes/output/core_renderer.php: call to core\hook\output\before_footer_html_generation->process_legacy_callbacks()
  • line 97 of /mod/book/tool/print/index.php: call to core\output\core_renderer->footer()