Main Page

Welcome to the CC Wiki! The purpose of this wiki is to help you learn more about CC and
give you a chance to collaborate with us. CC relies on its community of users to keep it
strong, so now is your chance to get involved! To learn more about wikis and how to edit
them, visit our Getting Started page.

Please login with your CCID by clicking the log in link above -- If you have any questions

or problems, please write to [email protected].

Accounts must be approved before you can edit the CC Wiki -- Please write to

[email protected] providing your CCID and something to prove you are a real

person who wants to edit the Wiki.

More about CC

FAQ

Page of Frequently Asked Questions, with information on all aspects of Creative Commons

licensing.

Developers

Resources for software developers interested in developing tools to facilitate the use and

growth of Creative Commons licenses and standards.

Marking

List of best practices for marking content with CC licenses.

Web Integration

Everything a web-based (media) hosting site needs to know to integrate CC and CC-

related features.

Affiliate Network*

The CC Affiliate Network consists of 100+ affiliates working in over 79 jurisdictions to

support and promote CC activities around the world.

*As of January 2018, the Affiliate Network transitioned to a Global Network, where everyone - individuals and institutions

- are welcome. The Creative Commons Global Network works together to realize our shared values and build

relationships around the world. Interested in signing up? Become a member at https://network.creativecommons.org/.

Open Educational Resources

Read about Open Educational Resources (OER) and how Creative Commons supports

the movement.

Wiki Projects

Translate

Help us translate our wiki, web content, videos and more.

Version 4.0 of the CC License Suite

CC has released a new version of its core license suite, version 4.0.

Case Studies

Past, present, and future "CC success stories" to help measure the impact of Creative

Commons around the world. Everyone is encouraged to contribute!

Content Directories

A list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons licenses.

 Events

Upcoming Creative Commons-relevant events around the world: get details, add an event,

learn how to start a ccSalon, and sign up for our events mailing list.

OER Project

Contribute to CC's OER wiki-databases and pages.

Documentation

Large-scale CC specifications, recommendations, white papers, tutorials.

Categories:

• Volunteer

• Role

• Project

• Developer

• Creator

• Lawyer

• Guide

• Help

Navigation menu

• Log in

• Main page
• Discussion

• Read
• View source
• View history

Search Go

• About
• FAQ
• Developers
wiki navigation
• Main Page
• Community portal
• Recent changes
• Random page
• Help
Tools
• What links here
• Related changes
• Special pages
• Printable version
• Permanent link
• Page information
• This page was last edited on 15 May 2018, at 05:39.
• This wiki is licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Your use of this wiki is governed by the Terms of Use.

4.0

(If you are looking for the final policy decisions and versioning notes for 4.0, see

the Version 4 page. The set of pages you are currently on are the pages that were
 maintained during the license development process, and provide a detailed history of the

drafting of the license.)

Version 4.0 of the CC license suite was published on 25 November 2013, after CC

conducted a multi-year versioning process. The first public discussions of 4.0 were held at

CC's Global Summit 2011. The public process was kicked off with a blog post laying out

some of the key reasons for pursuing a new version at that time.

Since CC's launch in 2001, five major versions of the of the license suite have been

published. CC licenses constitute a globally-recognized framework, developed in

consultation with legal experts and CC affiliate institutions in over 70 jurisdictions. Over

500 million works on the Web are under a CC license. Today, Creative Commons licenses,

public domain tools, and supporting technologies are the global standard for sharing in

culture, education, government, science, and more.

Version 4.0 represented a tremendous opportunity to ensure the license suite was ideally

crafted to further CC's vision and mission over the next decades. We are thankful for the

input of all of those who participated in this important discussion.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Goals and objectives

• 2 Organization and purpose of this wiki

• 3 Process

• 4 Draft timeline
• 5 Related pages

Goals and objectives

The Creative Commons staff, board, and community identified several goals for the 4.0

license suite, tied to achieving CC's goals and mission. These include:

 Internationalization – further adapt the core suite of international licenses to operate

globally, ensuring they are robust, enforceable and easily adopted worldwide;

 Interoperability – maximize interoperability between CC licenses and other licenses to

reduce friction within the commons, promote standards and stem license proliferation;

 Long-lasting — anticipate new and changing adoption opportunities and legal challenges,

allowing the new suite of licenses to endure for the foreseeable future;

 Data/PSI/Science/Education — recognize and address impediments to adoption of CC by

governments as well as other important, publicly-minded institutions in these and other

critical arenas; and

 Supporting Existing Adoption Models and Frameworks – remain mindful of and

accommodate the needs of our existing community of adopters leveraging pre-4.0

licenses, including governments but also other important constituencies.

Organization and purpose of this wiki

This wiki served as the central location for documenting key discussion topics and

suggestions for improving the license suite in version 4.0, together with supporting

information and relevant links. Its function was to supplement, not replace, the CC license

discuss email list (subscribe) that served as the main discussion forum for the versioning

process (as with prior versioning efforts). It is now maintained as an archive for those who

wish to read the details of the versioning process and the discussion proposals on the

various topics covered.

CC prepared pages on the key topics identified. Many topics that did not fit into the

prepared framework began in the Sandbox, with some eventually moving to individual

topic pages.

Process

As a license steward and steward of the commons, our goal was to ensure utmost

transparency and inclusiveness. The 4.0 process was conducted in line with our prior

versioning efforts, with periodic publication of license drafts for public comment and

documentation of issue resolution as it occurred. One important difference from our past

efforts, however, was a formal requirements gathering period that ran for a period of time

prior to publication of the first draft. During this period, we strongly encouraged the

broadest participation possible by everyone with an interest in the commons and the role

open licensing plays in its future.

The primary discussion forum for issues relating to the 4.0 versioning process was the CC

license development email list.

Draft timeline

September 2011 Launch 4.0 process at CC Global Summit

December 2011 thru mid-February
Requirements gathering period
2012
April 2, 2012 Publish first draft of 4.0
April to June 2012 Public comment period #1
August 2012 Publish second draft of 4.0
August 2012 to February 2013 Public comment period #2
February 2013 Publish third draft of 4.0; begin porting consultation
February to September 2013 Third public comment period; porting consultation
Publication of fourth and final draft; begin abbreviated
September 2013
final public comment period
November 25, 2013 Version 4.0 license suite finalized and published
November 2013 (immediately after
Translations of legal code begin
publication of 4.0)
CC to post considerations on the future of porting,
Q2 2014
including possible criteria
Various aspects of the license suite were improved in the version 4.0 licenses, after

gathering and rigorously debating and analyzing these items along with corresponding

proposals for handling them. CC encouraged the broadest possible engagement in this

process; this was a particularly important goal during the requirements gathering stage

where everyone was strongly encouraged (and our affiliates expected) to provide feedback

on proposed changes and suggest other changes they would like to see.

Prior versioning efforts were also reviewed, including relevant discussions of important

topics previously debated by the CC community and discussions related to their resolution.

Throughout the process, we took these into account, particularly where a request was

made to revisit and potentially change direction in 4.0.

Item/Category Name
4.0/Attribution and marking

4.0/Compatibility

4.0/Disclaimer of warranties and related issues

4.0/Internationalization

4.0/License subject matter

4.0/Moral rights

4.0/NonCommercial

4.0/ShareAlike

4.0/Sui generis database rights

4.0/Technical protection measures

4.0/Termination

4.0/Treatment of adaptations
 Related pages

4.0 Sandbox

Porting Project

4.0 Drafts

4.0 Draft 1

4.0 Draft 2

4.0 Draft 3

4.0 Draft 4

{{#set: LegalTool=4.0}}

Category:

• 4.0

Navigation menu

• Log in

• Page
• Discussion

• Read
• View source
• View history

Go

• About
• FAQ
• Developers
wiki navigation
• Main Page
• Community portal
• Recent changes
• Random page
• Help
Tools
• What links here
• Related changes
• Special pages
• Printable version
• Permanent link
• Page information
• This page was last edited on 2 November 2019, at 08:24.
• This wiki is licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Your use of this wiki is governed by the Terms of Use.

Categories

The following categories contain pages or media. Unused categories are not shown here. Also
see wanted categories.

Categories

Show

(first | last) View (previous 50 | next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500)

 2007 (13 members)

 2008 (16 members)

 2011 (4 members)

 3.0 (3 members)
 4.0 (15 members)

 4.0 Issues (13 members)

 About (18 members)

 Affiliate Active (80 members)

 Affiliate In Progress (3 members)

 Affiliate Inactive (8 members)

 Africa (4 members)

 Ambiguous (2 members)

 Announcement (1 member)

 Application (2 members)

 Art (3 members)

 Audio (2 members)

 Audio Directories (1 member)

 Beginner (1 member)

 Best Practice (12 members)

 Best Practice Templates (1 member)

 Birthday (26 members)

 Birthday Party (11 members)

 Blog (2 members)

 Blogger (1 member)

 Blogs (2 members)

 Book (154 members)

 Book Online (7 members)

 Books (1 member)

 Browse (13 members)

 CC (1 member)

 CC+ (8 members)

 CC0 (17 members)

 CC0 Translations (12 members)

 CCPlus (8 members)

 CC Affiliate Locale (91 members)

 CC Learn Staff (1 member)

 CC Network (3 members)

 CC Nordic meeting (1 member)

 CC Tech Handbook (5 members)

 CCi (5 members)

 Canada (7 members)

 Case Law (13 members)

 Casestudy (404 members)

 Catalyst Grants (2 members)

 CcHost (59 members)

 CcHost dead page (1 member)

 CcLearn FAQ (52 members)

 CcLiveCD (22 members)

 CcLookup (3 members)

 CcMixter (53 members)

(first | last) View (previous 50 | next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500)

ext Widget (easy)

This works on Wordpress.com as well as self-hosted WordPress installations.
Step 1: In your dashboard, go to the menu item "Widgets", under "Appearance".
Step 2: Find the widget labeled "Text", and drag it to your sidebar or footer. Location is entirely up to
you. (yeah, that too!)
Step 3: Paste the code provided by the CC license chooser in the widget's text box, and click "Save".
This should now display the CC mark. You may style the blog as you wish. If on WordPress.com, you
have to use inline styles, unless you have a paid subscription and can change all the CSS of your
theme.
Use this method unless you strongly prefer editing source files or installing plugins and have good
reason to do so!
TO-DO: visual guide for this method.

Theme PHP files (more difficult)

Edit the theme's footer.php or sidebar.php file. Get your license button HTML
from http://creativecommons.org/license and paste it into your footer.php (or sidebar.php or wherever
you want it to appear).

Plugin
Use a plugin. This might be the easiest way, but has some potential for problems if the plugin breaks
when you upgrade, or it clashes with another plugin. The widget above is usually a better option.
To do this, use the Creative Commons license widget. (That page says it's only tested up to WordPress
2.5, but it seems to be working on our version 2.71 blog without problems. --Chriswaterguy 04:02, 16
May 2009 (UTC)) Note: it's easier to install from the admin interface (click Plugins, then Install) rather
than downloading from the link given here.

See also

LiveContent About

LiveContent is a LiveCD [1] full of a sampling of and links to free and open source creativity
software and Creative Commons' licensed free and open content — audio, video, image, and text —
for anyone to explore. Please use this disc if you are interested in trying free media and possibly
want to create your own with tools like OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Gimp and more.

[1] A LiveCD is a CD which boots into an operating system when the CD is in one's disc
drive, and the power is started on that same computer.
High-level
LiveContent is an umbrella idea which aims to connect and expand Creative Commons
and open source communities. LiveContent works to identify creators and content
providers working to share their creations more easily with others. LiveContent works to
support developers and others who build better technology to distribute these works.
LiveContent is up-to-the-minute creativity, "alive" by being licensed Creative Commons,
which allows others to better interact with the content.

LiveContent can be delivered in a variety of ways. The first incarnation of LiveContent will
deliver content as a LiveCD. LiveCDs are equivalent to what is called a LiveDistro.
LiveCDs have traditionally been a vehicle to test an operating system or applications live.
Operating systems and/or applications are directly booted from a CD or other type of
media without needing to install the actual software on a machine. LiveContent aims to
add value to LiveDistros by providing dynamically-generated content within the distribution.

Main Page

Welcome to the CC Wiki! The purpose of this wiki is to help you learn more about CC
and give you a chance to collaborate with us. CC relies on its community of users to
keep it strong, so now is your chance to get involved! To learn more about wikis and
how to edit them, visit our Getting Started page.
Please login with your CCID by clicking the log in link above -- If you have any questions or problems,
please write to [email protected].
Accounts must be approved before you can edit the CC Wiki -- Please write to
[email protected] providing your CCID and something to prove you are a real person who
wants to edit the Wiki.
More about CC

FAQ
Page of Frequently Asked Questions, with information on all aspects of Creative Commons licensing.

Developers
Resources for software developers interested in developing tools to facilitate the use and growth of
Creative Commons licenses and standards.

Marking
List of best practices for marking content with CC licenses.

Web Integration
Everything a web-based (media) hosting site needs to know to integrate CC and CC-related features.

Affiliate Network*
The CC Affiliate Network consists of 100+ affiliates working in over 79 jurisdictions to support and
promote CC activities around the world.

*As of January 2018, the Affiliate Network transitioned to a Global Network, where everyone - individuals and institutions
- are welcome. The Creative Commons Global Network works together to realize our shared values and build
relationships around the world. Interested in signing up? Become a member at https://network.creativecommons.org/.

Open Educational Resources

Read about Open Educational Resources (OER) and how Creative Commons supports the movement.

Wiki Projects

Translate
Help us translate our wiki, web content, videos and more.

Version 4.0 of the CC License Suite

CC has released a new version of its core license suite, version 4.0.

Case Studies
Past, present, and future "CC success stories" to help measure the impact of Creative Commons
around the world. Everyone is encouraged to contribute!

Content Directories
A list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons licenses.

Events
Upcoming Creative Commons-relevant events around the world: get details, add an event, learn how to
start a ccSalon, and sign up for our events mailing list.
 OER Project
Contribute to CC's OER wiki-databases and pages.

Documentation
Large-scale CC specifications, recommendations, white papers, tutorials.

This is a page describing everything a web-based (media) hosting site could do to

integrate CC and CC-related features. From simple blogs to elaborate user-
generated content communities, there are easy ways to share website content by
publishing it under a Creative Commons license. Below we provide a basic overview
of how you may integrate Creative Commons licensing into your website.

Tools of the Trade

HowTo
Web Services
Guide(API)
The web
While knowing
servicesabout
are designed
the various
to be
tools
a more
Creative
flexible
Commons
option provides
for building
to integrate
a custom,
CC licenses
fully integrated
in your
solution.
web application, seeing examples of implementations is even
better!
ThirdParty Tools
LicenseChooser.js
 Acts As License is a Ruby on Rails plugin that allows for integrating of CC
LicenseChooser.js
license choice in your
provides
Rails aweb
lightweight
application
method
as a server
for integrating
application
license
building
selection
tool.
into web applications. The widget is used by TypePad, as well as WpLicense.

Partner Interface
This interface provides another method of integrating CC license choice in your
web application using an iframe or HTML popup.
Underlying Technology

RDFa
CcREL
A specification
RDFa is a way of
describing
expressing
howRDF
license
in XHTML.
information
Creative
may be
Commons
described
uses
andRDFa to
express license
attached to works.
and other information about works for the semantic web.