Difference between revisions of "Recommended practices for attribution"

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{{Best Practice}}
 
{{Best Practice}}
  
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==Best Practices for Marking Content with CC Licenses: Users==
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New title will be: '''Best practices for attribution'''
  
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px dotted red; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">
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You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution. Note: If you want to learn how to mark your own material with a CC license go [[Marking/Creators|here]].
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NOTE: This page is for users of others' works who are seeking best practices on how to attribute CC-licensed content. If you are looking for the best way to mark your own CC-licensed work as a creator, see http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking/Creators. 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.
 
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</div>
 
  
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When reusing a CC-licensed work (via sharing the original or a derivative based on the original), it is your legal obligation to include what license is being used, as well as abiding by the license conditions provided by the licensor, aka the creator or content owner of the work.
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==Examples of attribution==
  
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==Marking on Your Site==
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Here is a photo. Following it are some examples of how people might attribute it.
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<br/>
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:[[File:8256206923_c77e85319e_n.jpg]]
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Adapted from our [[FAQ#How_do_I_properly_attribute_a_Creative_Commons_licensed_work.3F|FAQ]]:
 
  
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'''How do I properly attribute a Creative Commons licensed work?'''
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===This is an ideal attribution===
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">
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"[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco]" by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/ tvol] is licensed under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY 2.0]</div>
  
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All current CC licenses require that you attribute the original author(s). If the copyright holder has not specified any particular way to attribute them, this does not mean that you do not have to give attribution. It simply means that you will have to give attribution to the best of your ability with the information you do have.  Generally speaking, this implies five things:
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''Because:''
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:Author? " [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/ tvol]" - linked to his profile page
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:Source? "[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco]" - linked to original Flickr page
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:License? " [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY]" - linked to license deed
  
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* If the work itself contains any copyright notices placed there by the copyright holder, you must leave those notices intact, or reproduce them in a way that is reasonable to the medium in which you are re-publishing the work.
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===This is a pretty good attribution===
  
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* Cite the author's name, screen name, user identification, etc. It is nice to link that name to the person's profile page, if such a page exists.
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Photo] by tvol / [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY]</div>
  
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* Cite the work's title or name, if such a thing exists. It is nice to link the name or title directly to the original work.
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''Because:''
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:Author? "tvol"
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:Source? "[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Photo]" - linked to original Flickr page
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:License? "[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY]" - linked to license deed
  
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* Cite the specific CC license the work is under, and link to the specific CC license, ie. for CC Attribution you would link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0.
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=== This is an incorrect attribution===
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">Photo: Creative Commons</div>
  
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* If you are making a derivative work or adaptation, in addition to the above, you need to identify that your work is a derivative work i.e., “This is a Finnish translation of the [original work] by [author].” or “Screenplay based on [original work] by [author].”
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''Because:''
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:Author? Creative Commons is not the author of this photo.
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:Source? No link to original photo.
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:License? There is no mention of the license, much less a link to the license. "Creative Commons" is an organization.
  
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In the case where a copyright holder does choose to specify the manner of attribution, in addition to the requirement of leaving intact existing copyright notices, they are only able to require certain things. Namely:
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=== This is a good attribution for material you modified slightly===
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:[[File:8256206923_c77e85319e_n_desaturated.jpg]]
  
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* They may require that you attribute the work to a certain name, pseudonym or even an organization of some sort.
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">"[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco]" by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/ tvol], used under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY] / Desaturated from original</div>
  
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* They may require you to associate/provide a certain URL (web address) for the work.
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''Because:''
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:Author, Source, and License are all noted
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:Modification? "Desaturated from original"
  
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If you are interested to see what an actual license ("legalcode") has to say about attribution, you can use the CC Attribution 3.0 Unported license as an example.  Please note that this is '''only an example''', and you should '''always''' read the appropriate section of the specific license in question...usually, but perhaps not always, section 4: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
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=== This is a good attribution for material from which you created a derivative work===
  
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===Examples===
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:[[File:8256206923_c77e85319e_n_90fied.jpg]]
  
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'''Attributing the original work'''
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<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "[http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/8256206923/in/set-72157632200936657 Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco]" by [http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/ tvol], used under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY]. "90fied" is licensed under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY] by [Your name here].</div>
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:"My Awesome Photo," © 2009 Greg Grossmeier, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
 
  
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'''Attributing your derivative use of the work'''
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''Because:''
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:This is a Finnish translation of "My Awesome Report" © 2009 by Greg Grossmeier, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. This Finnish translation is licensed under the same Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
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:Original Author, Source, and License are all noted
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:Derivative? "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
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:New author of the derivative work is also noted
  
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===Marking works offered under other CC licenses===
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Note: If you're at a point where you are licensing derivative works, go to [[Marking/Creators|Marking your work with a CC license]].
  
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If you are using other works offered under different Creative Commons licenses, the best practices above also apply to each work you use. Here's how you may want to consider marking content that is licensed differently.
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=== This is a good attribution for material from multiple sources ===
  
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Example of marking a report under a CC license:
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:[[File:Saylor_marking_example.jpg]]
  
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:Except otherwise noted, this report is © 2009 Greg Grossmeier, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.  
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''Because:''
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:Author? Different authors noted for the different works.
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:Source? Original materials are linked for each work
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:License? The different licenses (Creative Commons Attribution for Collaborative Statistics and Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike for the Khan Academy video) are spelled out and linked for each work
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:Lastly, it is clear which attribution belongs to which work.
  
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Example of marking a photo from the report that is under a different CC license:
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You can visit the [http://www.saylor.org/courses/ma121/ Saylor.org Introduction to Statistics course page] to see how they marked it up directly.
  
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:The photo X is © 2009 Jane Park, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
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==Author, Source, License==
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A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym '''ASL''', which stands for '''A'''uthor, '''S'''ource, '''L'''icense.  
  
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If you are a creator that is incorporating third party items into your work, see our page containing additional explanation and tips for creators on [[Marking/Creators/Marking_third_party_content|marking third party works]].
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'''Author''' - Who owns the material?
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:Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.
  
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=== Is your attribution good enough? ===
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'''Source''' - Where can I find it?
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:Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.
  
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Ask yourself whether an interested viewer/reader/listener/other user is able to easily discern who gets credit (attribution) for the original work, and the freedoms associated with that work (license notice). If they can, great! If not, consider whether you are making a good faith effort to use the licensed work according to its terms.
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'''License''' - How can I use it?
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:You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.  
  
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If in doubt, you can try asking the original publisher. They may have already provided attribution guidelines, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content.
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'''Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it?'''
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:When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices, disclaimers, or warranties? Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting it into your attribution. Don't make it anymore complicated than it is -- just pass on any info you think is important.
  
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== Marking Specific Media ==
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===Devil in the details===
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The above best practices for attribution apply to various mediums as well, though marking will vary depending on the medium. The following are some helpful tips on making sure your media is marked correctly.
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If you have any doubts or questions, you can read the complete attribution requirements which are spelled out in detail in the legal code of every CC license, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
  
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For offline works in general, consider publishing a web page with attribution information about the work you are using. Doing so enables the work to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools.
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===Don't make it too complicated===
  
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=== Crediting in Video ===
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The license tells you to be reasonable:
  
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Adding the appropriate credit information to your videos could be as simple as a list of the works used at the end with their associated license. Eg:
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:''You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any '''reasonable manner''' based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used.  For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information.''
  
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{| cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10" style="padding: 2%;margin:0em 0em 1em 0em; border:1px; background:#eee; width:100%"
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There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you're working with. (More on different mediums [[Marking/Users#Attribution_in_specific_media|below]].)
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|
 
  
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This video features the following songs:
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== Attribution in specific media ==
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As stated above, best practices for attribution apply as reasonable to the medium you're working with. For media such as offline materials, video, audio, and images, consider:
  
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“Desaprendere (Treatment)” by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
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:1. '''Publishing a web page with attribution information.''' For example, on a webpage featuring your audio recording, provide a credit list of material you used that adheres to best practices above. Doing so allows not only your material, but the materials you attribute, to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools. If possible within the medium, make the Author, Source, and License links the user can follow.
  
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“Some Other Song” by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
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:<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">'''Example:'''<br>This video features the song [http://ccmixter.org/media/files/victor/6374 "Desaprendere (Treatment)"] by [http://fourstones.net/ fourstones], available under a Creative Commons [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ Attribution-Noncommercial] license.</div>
  
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|}
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:2. '''Mentioning the credits within the media itself.''' For example, crediting videos can be a simple list of the materials used with their associated licenses in a screen at the end of a video. For audio, it can be a verbal recitation of credits at the end of the recording.
  
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If possible, it is desirable to make the title, author, and license links the viewer can follow.
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:<div style="padding: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 1px; background-color: #eee; width: 65%;">'''Video example 1:''' "Science Commons" by Jesse Dylan - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAcTNFzF-s&feature=youtu.be&t=1m52s see attribution starting at 1:52]<br>'''Video example 2:''' "Video Editing and Shot Techniques: Study of jump cuts, match cuts and cutaways " video by New Media Rights - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONMSe_zhq70&feature=youtu.be&t=3m21s see attribution starting at 3:21]<br>'''Audio example:''' "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow read aloud. Mastered by John Taylor Williams - [http://craphound.com/down/?p=1672 listen to attribution starting at 17:08]</div>
  
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=== Crediting in Offline Text ===
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== If you want to get Technical ==
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If you really want to go there, we have a [[Marking_Works_Technical|document about marking materials]] so that they are machine-readable.
  
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A similar format to [[Marking/Users#Marking_on_Your_Site|Marking on Your Site]] above.
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== Other guides to attribution ==
  
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=== Crediting in Audio ===
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* [http://foter.com/blog/how-to-attribute-creative-commons-photos/ How To Attribute CC Photos] poster by foter
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* [http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/attribution.pdf Attributing Creative Commons Material] (pdf) - Creative Commons Australia's publication is full of examples with colorful imagery.
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If available online provide a "credit list" of material used with the added ability to create links for text available online.
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* [http://www.newmediarights.org/guide/how_to/creative_commons/best_practices_creative_commons_attributions How to attribute works you reuse under a Creative Commons license] by New Media Rights provides real world examples by different media type
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=== Crediting in Images ===
 
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If available online provide a "credit list" of material used with the added ability to create links for text available online.
 
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== Download Markers ==
 
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* For images & documents:
 
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** [[CC_markers | Official CC Markers]]
 
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** [[User_submitted_markers | User Submitted Markers]]
 
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* For audio:
 
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** [http://creativecommons.org/podcasting  CC Podcast Plugs]
 
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* For video:
 
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** [[CC_video_bumpers | Official CC Bumpers]]
 
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** [[User_submitted_bumpers | User Submitted Bumpers]]
 
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== More Technical ==
 
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We also have a [[Marking_works|document about marking works that is more technical]].
 
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== External Guides and Fact Sheets ==
 
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* Creative Commons Australia's [http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/attribution.pdf Attributing Creative Commons Material] (pdf) (created for the [http://creativecommons.org.au/poolingideas Pooling Ideas competition])
 
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* [http://mollykleinman.com Molly Kleinman's] excellent, easy to read article  [http://mollykleinman.com/2008/08/15/cc-howto-1-how-to-attribute-a-creative-commons-licensed-work/  CC HowTo #1: How to Attribute a Creative Commons licensed work] - includes illustrative examples.
 
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* [http://www.wikihow.com/Attribute-a-Creative-Commons-Licensed-Work How to Attribute a Creative Commons Licensed Work] article on wikiHow, based on Molly Kleinman's article.
 

Revision as of 18:15, 5 November 2013


New title will be: Best practices for attribution

You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. Here are some good (and not so good) examples of attribution. Note: If you want to learn how to mark your own material with a CC license go here.

Examples of attribution

Here is a photo. Following it are some examples of how people might attribute it.

8256206923 c77e85319e n.jpg

This is an ideal attribution

"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Because:

Author? " tvol" - linked to his profile page
Source? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" - linked to original Flickr page
License? " CC BY" - linked to license deed

This is a pretty good attribution

Photo by tvol / CC BY

Because:

Author? "tvol"
Source? "Photo" - linked to original Flickr page
License? "CC BY" - linked to license deed

This is an incorrect attribution

Photo: Creative Commons

Because:

Author? Creative Commons is not the author of this photo.
Source? No link to original photo.
License? There is no mention of the license, much less a link to the license. "Creative Commons" is an organization.

This is a good attribution for material you modified slightly

8256206923 c77e85319e n desaturated.jpg
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Because:

Author, Source, and License are all noted
Modification? "Desaturated from original"

This is a good attribution for material from which you created a derivative work

8256206923 c77e85319e n 90fied.jpg
This work, "90fied", is a derivative of "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol, used under CC BY. "90fied" is licensed under CC BY by [Your name here].

Because:

Original Author, Source, and License are all noted
Derivative? "This work, "90fied", is a derivative of..."
New author of the derivative work is also noted

Note: If you're at a point where you are licensing derivative works, go to Marking your work with a CC license.

This is a good attribution for material from multiple sources

Saylor marking example.jpg

Because:

Author? Different authors noted for the different works.
Source? Original materials are linked for each work
License? The different licenses (Creative Commons Attribution for Collaborative Statistics and Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike for the Khan Academy video) are spelled out and linked for each work
Lastly, it is clear which attribution belongs to which work.

You can visit the Saylor.org Introduction to Statistics course page to see how they marked it up directly.

Author, Source, License

A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym ASL, which stands for Author, Source, License.

Author - Who owns the material?

Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.

Source - Where can I find it?

Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.

License - How can I use it?

You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.

Lastly, is there anything else I should know before I use it?

When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices, disclaimers, or warranties? Because that kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential users of the material. So best practice is to just retain all of that stuff by copying and pasting it into your attribution. Don't make it anymore complicated than it is -- just pass on any info you think is important.

Devil in the details

If you have any doubts or questions, you can read the complete attribution requirements which are spelled out in detail in the legal code of every CC license, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Don't make it too complicated

The license tells you to be reasonable:

You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information.

There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you're working with. (More on different mediums below.)

Attribution in specific media

As stated above, best practices for attribution apply as reasonable to the medium you're working with. For media such as offline materials, video, audio, and images, consider:

1. Publishing a web page with attribution information. For example, on a webpage featuring your audio recording, provide a credit list of material you used that adheres to best practices above. Doing so allows not only your material, but the materials you attribute, to be found by search engines and other web discovery tools. If possible within the medium, make the Author, Source, and License links the user can follow.
Example:
This video features the song "Desaprendere (Treatment)" by fourstones, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
2. Mentioning the credits within the media itself. For example, crediting videos can be a simple list of the materials used with their associated licenses in a screen at the end of a video. For audio, it can be a verbal recitation of credits at the end of the recording.
Video example 1: "Science Commons" by Jesse Dylan - see attribution starting at 1:52
Video example 2: "Video Editing and Shot Techniques: Study of jump cuts, match cuts and cutaways " video by New Media Rights - see attribution starting at 3:21
Audio example: "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow read aloud. Mastered by John Taylor Williams - listen to attribution starting at 17:08

If you want to get Technical

If you really want to go there, we have a document about marking materials so that they are machine-readable.

Other guides to attribution

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