A Creative Commons license enables the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. When an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created, they use a Creative Commons license. The license also provides an author with some choices they can allow only non-commercial uses of their own work or allow people to redistribute a work as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.
Attribution
CC BY
This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon an author's work, even commercially, as long as they give credit for the original creation. This is the most accommodating license offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon an author's work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the creator.
Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon an author's work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge the creator and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon an author's work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creator and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download works and share them with others as long as they credit the creator, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
