Difference between revisions of "Marking your work with a CC license"
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==Best Practices for Marking Content with CC Licenses: Creators == | ==Best Practices for Marking Content with CC Licenses: Creators == | ||
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As a creator using a CC license, it is important to properly note the license you have chosen so that others know what they can and can't do with your work. No matter what the context, CC licenses should be clearly cited to enable their full potential as a legal tool. | As a creator using a CC license, it is important to properly note the license you have chosen so that others know what they can and can't do with your work. No matter what the context, CC licenses should be clearly cited to enable their full potential as a legal tool. | ||
| + | ===Marking on Your Site=== | ||
Our [http://creativecommons.org/choose/ license chooser] is designed to make this process simple - answer a few questions and a formatted HTML code will be generated for you: | Our [http://creativecommons.org/choose/ license chooser] is designed to make this process simple - answer a few questions and a formatted HTML code will be generated for you: | ||
| − | #Insert this HTML code into your webpage so that your work is clearly marked. | + | # Insert this HTML code into your webpage so that your work is clearly marked. |
# This HTML code includes [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Rdfa RDFa], a very important aspect of marking your work so that others can find it easily. | # This HTML code includes [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Rdfa RDFa], a very important aspect of marking your work so that others can find it easily. | ||
| − | From there, | + | The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly. |
| + | |||
| + | If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically. | ||
| + | |||
| + | From there, here are three steps to license notice perfection: | ||
# The full URI (link) to the license. Example: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/. | # The full URI (link) to the license. Example: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/. | ||
| − | # A visible notation (most commonly text) that states the license being used. Example: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | + | # A visible notation (most commonly text) that states the license being used. Example: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
| − | # Optionally, the appropriate Creative Commons license button or CC icon and license property icon(s). | + | # Optionally, the appropriate Creative Commons license button or CC icon and license property icon(s). |
{| cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10" style="padding: 2%;margin:0em 0em 1em 0em; border:1px dotted red; background:#eee; width:100%" | {| cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10" style="padding: 2%;margin:0em 0em 1em 0em; border:1px dotted red; background:#eee; width:100%" | ||
| | | | ||
| − | NOTE: Because each CC license represents a different set of permissions and restrictions, it is important to note the specific license used. Displaying only the CC icon, “Creative Commons”, or “Some | + | NOTE: Because each CC license represents a different set of permissions and restrictions, it is important to note the specific license used. Displaying only the CC icon, “Creative Commons”, or “Some Rights Reserved” is insufficient; always include the full URL. |
|} | |} | ||
| + | In order for others to credit you for your work, it is preferable to provide an attribution name and URI. The [http://creativecommons.org/choose/ license chooser] provides the proper license button (if you fill in attribution fields) as well as RDFa attribution data. Alternatively, high resolution buttons and license icons are available from [http://creativecommons.org/about/downloads our logo download page]. | ||
| − | + | For example, see the following screenshot of a license notification that incorporates these best practices: | |
| − | + | [[Image:By_small.jpg]] | |
| + | <br/><small>This work by [http://opencontent.org/blog David Wiley] is licensed under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States].</small> | ||
| − | If your | + | If you visit David's [http://opencontent.org/blog/ blog], you will see this notice at the bottom of the page. The license icon links to the license deed that includes attribution information specific to David. In this case, David filled out the attribution fields in the [http://creativecommons.org/choose/ license chooser], which provided the proper license button and formatted attribution information. He then pasted the resulting HTML code with RDFa into his webpage and included the textual notation of attribution and the specific license that you see above. |
| + | |||
| + | Still confused? Take a look at our visual guide. See [Adding a license to your existing website http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Adding_a_license_to_your_existing_website] for step by step visuals of copying and pasting the HTML code. This page also contains the same information for pages that host a specific type of media ([http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Adding_a_license_to_your_audio_page audio], [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Adding_a_license_to_your_video_page video], [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Adding_a_license_to_your_photo_pages photo], and [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Text text] -- which includes various blogging platforms). | ||
| + | |||
| + | If your work is a derivative of another original CC-licensed work, be sure to look at our [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking/Users Marking for Users] primer as well. | ||
== Marking Specific Media == | == Marking Specific Media == | ||
| − | While remaining similar in intent, marking will vary depending on the medium. The following are some helpful tips on making sure your media is marked correctly | + | While remaining similar in intent, marking will vary depending on the medium. The following are some helpful tips on making sure your media is marked correctly. |
| + | |||
| + | For offline works in general, consider publishing a web page with licensing information about your material. Doing so enables your work to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Below are general examples for each medium. If a more technical explanation is your goal, please see [http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking_works Marking Works (technical)]: | ||
| − | |||
<div style="padding:1.25em 1em; margin-left:-1em; margin-right:-1em; -moz-border-radius:5px; -webkit-border-radius:5px; background-color: #eaeaea; overflow: auto;"> | <div style="padding:1.25em 1em; margin-left:-1em; margin-right:-1em; -moz-border-radius:5px; -webkit-border-radius:5px; background-color: #eaeaea; overflow: auto;"> | ||
{{PageColumn| | {{PageColumn| | ||
Revision as of 21:36, 16 September 2010
Contents
Best Practices for Marking Content with CC Licenses: Creators
|
NOTE: This page is for creators and copyright owners who are looking to CC license their own work. If you are looking for the best way to mark CC-licensed work as a user, see http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking/Users. If you own a content-sharing site or platform that hosts works by other creators and are interested in enabling CC licensing for your users, see http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Integration. |
As a creator using a CC license, it is important to properly note the license you have chosen so that others know what they can and can't do with your work. No matter what the context, CC licenses should be clearly cited to enable their full potential as a legal tool.
Marking on Your Site
Our license chooser is designed to make this process simple - answer a few questions and a formatted HTML code will be generated for you:
- Insert this HTML code into your webpage so that your work is clearly marked.
- This HTML code includes RDFa, a very important aspect of marking your work so that others can find it easily.
The specifics of inserting the code depend on how you edit your website. The block of code should be inserted into the page HTML - most desktop website tools like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, or GoLive offer a "code view" that lets you see the code that makes up your page. Near the end of the page before you see </body></html>, paste the HTML code in directly.
If all of the resources you are publishing on a single website are licensed under the same CC license, it makes sense to paste the HTML code into your website’s template (e.g., in a footer or sidebar area). After saving the template, the chosen license information should appear everywhere on your site. Whether you add license information to a single page or an entire site, once live on the Internet, the license information will be displayed and the machines will be able to detect the license status automatically.
From there, here are three steps to license notice perfection:
- The full URI (link) to the license. Example: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/.
- A visible notation (most commonly text) that states the license being used. Example: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
- Optionally, the appropriate Creative Commons license button or CC icon and license property icon(s).
|
NOTE: Because each CC license represents a different set of permissions and restrictions, it is important to note the specific license used. Displaying only the CC icon, “Creative Commons”, or “Some Rights Reserved” is insufficient; always include the full URL. |
In order for others to credit you for your work, it is preferable to provide an attribution name and URI. The license chooser provides the proper license button (if you fill in attribution fields) as well as RDFa attribution data. Alternatively, high resolution buttons and license icons are available from our logo download page.
For example, see the following screenshot of a license notification that incorporates these best practices:
This work by David Wiley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States.
If you visit David's blog, you will see this notice at the bottom of the page. The license icon links to the license deed that includes attribution information specific to David. In this case, David filled out the attribution fields in the license chooser, which provided the proper license button and formatted attribution information. He then pasted the resulting HTML code with RDFa into his webpage and included the textual notation of attribution and the specific license that you see above.
Still confused? Take a look at our visual guide. See [Adding a license to your existing website http://wiki.creativecommons.org/HOWTO_Publish#Adding_a_license_to_your_existing_website] for step by step visuals of copying and pasting the HTML code. This page also contains the same information for pages that host a specific type of media (audio, video, photo, and text -- which includes various blogging platforms).
If your work is a derivative of another original CC-licensed work, be sure to look at our Marking for Users primer as well.
Marking Specific Media
While remaining similar in intent, marking will vary depending on the medium. The following are some helpful tips on making sure your media is marked correctly.
For offline works in general, consider publishing a web page with licensing information about your material. Doing so enables your work to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools.
Below are general examples for each medium. If a more technical explanation is your goal, please see Marking Works (technical):
Text
- For documents that are meant to be printed out (not read online) it is suggested to use a title and/or copyright page to include the Copyright notice and CC license information.
- Sample Copyright notice: Copyright (c) 2009 by Greg Grossmeier. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
- Here is a collection of visual markers that can be used:
- Advanced Instructions: Text
Image
- As adding a watermark or other visual marker on an image ultimately detracts from the original, a safe method of indicating license choice consists of two actions:
- Ensure that the image has [XMP metadata] support with your name, date, and license choice.
- When publishing the image on your website or another's, make sure that your license choice is clearly visible to humans. For added benefit, ensure search engines can see it also via the use of [RDFa], which you can take from the HTML code given to you by the [license chooser].
- Advanced Instructions: Image
Audio
- However, it is suggested that all audio files which are licensed with a CC license perform two actions:
- Ensure that the audio file has metadata support with your name, date, and license choice.
- When publishing the audio file on your website or another's, make sure that your license choice is clearly visible to humans. For added benefit, ensure search engines can see it also via the use of [RDFa], which you can take from the HTML code given to you by the [license chooser].
- Also, if it is practical to do so (for podcasts, for instance, not song tracks), adding an audio bumper to the beginning of the file with your choice of license indicated works. Here are some intro bumpers which you can use to build upon.
- Advanced Instructions: Audio
Video
- For movies which have the ability to include a 2-5 second copyright frame, it is advised to use the same format as what is suggested for Textual works:
- Sample Copyright notice: Copyright (c) 2009 by Greg Grossmeier. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
- Here is a collection of stills which can be used as license bumpers:
- Adnvanced Instructions: Video
Marking Specific Formats
- CC-OpenOfficeOrg Addin for OpenOffice.
- To mark a Microsoft Office word document, you can use the Microsoft Office add-ins for Office 2003/XP or Office 2007
Marking on Specific Sites
Content Directories
CC-enabled content directories help you share your works with others while properly indicating the license they are under. Often, they will also make your content searchable for those looking for reusable/shareable works.
Does your favorite community not have CC-licenses enabled? You can usually indicate that you are using CC somewhere in an info box, but contact them and let them know it is a feature you would like to see.
Here are some guides to help you CC license your material on the specific sites listed below:
- Publishing your licensed music to the Internet Archive
- Publishing your licensed music to Soundclick
- Posting your licensed images at Flickr
- Publishing your licensed video at the Internet Archive
- Adding a Creative Commons license to your blog (Blogger, Movable Type, and Typepad)
- To mark a WordPress blog, see Adding a CC mark to a WordPress blog.
External Links
- Marking Examples - simple examples of different CC licence notices from Creative Commons Australia
