Attributing Creative Commons Materials
All Creative Commons (CC) license require that users of the work attribute the creator. This means you always have to acknowledge the creator or the CC work you are using, as well as provide any relevant copyright information.
The same principles apply to providing attribution across all CC licenses. You should:
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"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco Links to an external site." by tvol Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Links to an external site. |
This may sound like a lot of information, but there is flexibility in the way you present it. With a bit of clever formatting and linking it is easy to include all this information, particularly in the digital environment.
Of course, you do not have to include any information you cannot locate. However, you should make a good effort to find the relevant information for the material you are planning on using. Think about what you would want if it was your material.
Check what the Author wants
When you are using someone’s work, you should always check whether they have asked to be attributed in a particular way. Attribution instructions can often be found on the copyright page of a personal website, or on the member’s profile page on websites like Flickr or YouTube.
Identifying the Author
Sometimes it can be hard to identify the person who created the material you are using. Use common sense when determining who to attribute.
If you’re on a blog or news website with a number of authors, attribute the person who seems to be associated with the content you are reusing. If there is more than one author of the content, you should attribute them all. It is a good idea in cases such as this to attribute the publication as well, just in case.
Other times, it may be difficult to find the name of the creator. Particularly on web services like Flickr or YouTube the author may only be identified by their username. It is always a good idea to see if you can find their legal name, for example in an ‘About’ or “Biography” section of a website, on a profile page, or in the copyright notice (eg © Jane Smith 2008).
If you can’t find the name, use the pseudonym or username if there is one.
Attributing Others
The creator of the work may also require other parties to be included in the attribution, such as co-creators, sponsors or publishers. Where other parties are identified you should also include them in the attribution. If you are unable to provide details of all the parties, be sure to provide details of where you found the work (ie. the website, book or magazine).
Link to the Site
It is also important that, where possible, you provide a link to the site where you obtained the original work. This gives other people the ability to easily access the original work themselves. Depending on the medium in which you are reusing the work, this can be done either using a hyperlink or the URL as text. In instances where the original work does not have an associated URL, you do not have to link back to it.
Offline Attribution
Where your reuse is offline, such as in a book or as part of an exhibition, or where you think people are likely to want to print the work you should follow the same principles by providing the creator’s name, title of the work, the license it is under and the source where you got it from, remember that for offline works it is a good idea to spell out the license type and any URLs in full.
“Attributing CC Materials Links to an external site.” by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Links to an external site. and is licensed under CC-BY 2.5 Links to an external site.
Remixing the Original Work
If you change the original work in any way, such as cropping the work, changing the colors or replacing words, you will be creating a ‘derivative work’ of the original. You should always attribute the original work in any derivative work and identify that changes have been made to it.
Often the simplest way to do this is to use the phrase “this work is a derivative of…” and attribute the original work as you would normally. If your work incorporates a number of derivative works, you might say, “This work includes material from the following…” and list each original work. It is a good idea to state the order you are listing them in.
Keep Track of Everything you Use
Finally, in order to attribute properly, it is important that you keep track of all the materials that you use as you use them. Re-finding materials later can be very difficult and time-consuming.
The table below is a helpful way to keep track of all the CC material you use.
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Author/s |
Title |
Source |
License |
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CharlieHipHop |
Lets get moving |
www.charliehiphop.com/lets_get_movin_mp3 |
BY-NC-SA 3.0 |
Attribution:
This work is a derivative of “Attributing CC Materials Links to an external site.” by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation Links to an external site. and is licensed under CC-BY 2.5 Links to an external site.