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Applying Creative Commons Licenses to Your Work: Module 4: Creating a CC-Licensed Work

What to Consider After Applying a Creative Commons License

What to Consider When You've Decided to Apply a CC License

As you create your work

  • Make sure it is accessible. Consider using a tool like the WAVE accessibility evaluator to check your digital content.
  • If you are licensing your work to be editable, but you're making it available in a format that cannot be edited, consider making an editable file available for reusers.
  • Consider where you are making the work available. Avoid platforms that are locked down (such as ones that apply digital rights management). Aim for using platforms or formats that are device agnostic, and compatible with assistive technologies.
  • Make your work discoverable.
    • Our Access and Discovery Services department can help by adding your content to WorldCat and/or Digital Commons
    • Your librarian can help you find open repositories where your work can be added or linked to in order to make it more discoverable within Bucknell and beyond

After applying a license

As mentioned in Module 2, CC licenses are irrevocable, and they do not expire until the work is no longer subject to copyright protection. There are a few things to consider related to this idea as well:

  • As the copyright holder of an original work you created and openly licensed, even if you apply a Non-commercial license to the work, you retain the right to sell copies
  • You can take down the original CC-licensed work should you decide you no longer want it to be available. This does not have an effect on reuses of your work that occurred prior to your removal of the work.
  • If someone uses your work in a way you disapprove of, it is important for you to know the following:
    • Attribution does not suggest your endorsement of a use of your work
    • You may waive the attribution requirement (request removal of attribution from the reuse--licensee is required to comply with your request)
    • The requirement that modifications be noted in the attribution statement ensures that changes are not attributed to you

This section is a derivative of "Sharing Your Work with Creative Commons Licenses Part II: Collections and Adaptations" by Jill Hallam-Miller (2020), licensed CC BY 4.0 and adapted from the September 2019 Creative Commons Certificate Course by Creative Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. The adapted content is from the Creative Commons Certificate Course Unit 4: Using CC Licenses and CC Licensed Works.

Resources

Listed below are resources to help you with Creative Commons licensing and related issues.

Creative Commons

Contact Jill Hallam-Miller at jbhm001@bucknell.edu or your Scholarly Communications support team for help with licensing, open access, copyright, and other publishing concerns.

See the Creative Commons FAQ for answers to a range of important licensing questions.

For helpful information on a variety of CC-related topics, see the Creative Commons Certification Course material, and particularly Unit 5: CC for Educators (licensed CC BY 4.0).

See the CC wiki page "Marking your work with a CC license" (2019, licensed CC BY 4.0) for examples of marking various types of work with a CC license.

See the CC wiki page "Best practices for attribution" (2018, licensed CC BY 4.0) to see examples of attribution for various sources.

Finding and Using Alternative Course Materials

See our guide to finding and using alternative course materials--from library-subscribed ebooks and databases to open access and open data sources and OER and public domain materials--for help finding a range of affordable options to use in your courses.

Wikipedia has an extensive "List of major Creative Commons licensed works" (2020, licensed CC BY SA 3.0) by media type.

Creative Commons offers a tool, CC Search, for searching for CC-licensed images (licensed CC BY 4.0).

Creative Commons offers an extensive list of OER search options by media type (licensed CC BY 4.0).