What Is Creative Commons?
don't have to wony about W g h t infringe- as bng as
Creative Commons is a nonpmit organization that works to
increase the amount of aeaWy (cultural, educational, and
-
scientiiic content) availabk in 'the commons" the body of
wok that is available to the public for free and legal sharing,
use, repurposing, and remmng
How Does Creative Commons
Work?
WIVB Commons provides free, easy-touse legal tools that
give everyone from individual 'user genetated content"
creators to major companies and institutions a simple,
standardiied way to pre-clear usage rights to creative work
they own the copyright to. CC licenses let people easily
change their copyright terms fmm the default of 'all rights
reserved' to "some rights reserved.'
Cmative Commons licenses are not an altematk~ve to
copyright They apply on top of copyight, so you can modify
your copyight terms to best suit your needs. We've
collaborated with copyight experts all amund the world to
ensure that our licenses work globally.
Getting a Cmtive Commons r i s e is easy. Visit our Web
site at creatEvecommons.org and click 'License Your Work"
Based on your answers to a few quick questions, we'll give
you a license that clearly communicates to people what you
will and won't allow them to do with your creativity. It only
takes a few minutes and it's totally free. Our Web site also
contains an FAQ that answers many of the most common
questions about how CC licenses work
What Can Creative Commons Do
for Me?
If you've created something and want people to b o w that
you're happy to have them share, use, and build upon your
work, you shoukl consider p u b l i i i under a (Xeative
Commons license. CC's legal infrastructure g-rves you t h i b i l i i
(for example, you can choose to only predear nonwmmenzd
uses) and protects the people who use your work (so that they
creative
0commons
they abide by the terms you have spedfied).
Ifyou're an artist. student, educator, echtkt, or other creator
looking for content that you can freely and legany use, there
is a giant pool of CClicensed creativity availabk to you.
There are many millions of works -from songs and videos to
-
scientific and academic content that you can use under the
t e r n of our copyright licenses
Who Uses Creative Commons
Licenses?
Major media and technology companies, leading universilies,
top scientists, and world-renowned artists all take advantage
of the Creative Commons approach to coWrigM Most
importantly, there are millions of 'regular" people around the
world who use CC licenses to help increase the depth,
breadth, and quality of creativity that is available to everyone
for free and legal use.
How Is Creative Commons
Funded?
Financial support for Creative Commons comes from
organizations induding the John 0. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar NatwDrk, the Hewlett
Foundatan, and the Rockefeller Fwndatii. CC also
-
receives contributions from members of the public people
just like you who value the open, cdlaborative exchange of
culture and knowledge.
Where Can I Find Out More
About Creative Commons?
There is much more information, including a number of
helpful videos about Creative Commons, on our Web site.
Please n'sl us at creativecommons.org to learn more about
what we do and how we do it.
 Creative Commons (CC) provides free copyright licenses
which empower authors and creators to mark their
creativii with the freedoms they intend it to carry. In this
document we describe conceptually a technology we've
developed to enable a simple click-throughto rights or
opportunities beyond those offered in the standard CC
licenses. With this capability, it is simple for rights
holders to marry standard CC licenses with other options
beyond those provided wtihn i a CC license. For example,
a licensor offering wntent under a CC BY-NC license
(requiring atkibution, but restricting use to
noncommercial use only) could specify a broker (like a
third party service on awebsite) that would handle
commercial rights associated with the wntent Because
CC licenses are non-exclusive, there is no Creative
Commons-based limit to such multi-licensing.
These choices are then represented through a CC license
icon on the web that:
(1) Displaysthe M o m s offered,
(2)Links to a "Commons Deed" that explains the
freedoms in a human-readableway,
(3) Links to a license that enforces the freedoms,
and
(4) Llnks to metadata that describes the freedoms
in a machine-readable way.
So for example, an artist might license a song on his web
page. That webpage would display the CC license icon

Background
Creative Commons is a Massachusetts non-profit 'Mil Song' is I icansed under i a r a l = ' l irmse'
corporation that offers free copyright licenses to creators lhiei='ilrtp /icreaciveconnDns org,/l icenses!t~:d-ni-
55/3 O / ~ > < i , r ~ j
who want to clearly mark their content with certain s i c - ' h ~ z : / / $.craativec,inmnns o i g / l iby-nc-
freedoms. These licenses release some of the exclusive s a / ? 0/8@<31prig' /,<!a,
rights granted automatically by copyright law to the general
public, while reserving other rights to the copyright holder with code that is linked to aUCommonsDeed":
- thus its slogan, "Some Rights Resewed." u u e me:
Using the CC infrastructure, copyright holders may grant @ d.,* m,B.m.m, :--"a
others the freedom to:
@ --m-" a,.-

(1) Share their work, or

(2) Remix their work, or
(3) Both.

These freedoms may be conditioned, or limited, by:

(4) Limiting such uses to noncommercialactivitk, or

In the four years since its launch, Creative Commons has
(5) Requiring adopters share-alike - meaning become the preeminent 'user-generated content" licensing
derivates of the originalwork must be licensed in a en%. The project has sister projects in over 70
similar way, or jurisdictions around the wodd, each working to port its core
licenses to local law; 40 of those countries have completed
(6)Both.
their work to date. License uptake has in turn grown
dramatically in smpe and quantity. CC licences are now
being used by everyone from bloggers to major label artists.

lo creative
commons
I
Shere, reuse, and remix - legally
 CC and CC+ Overview
for the World Wide Web --

http:llcreativecornrnons.orglproiectsI~~plus

As CC has grown, it has developed closer relationships

with important content and application companies. S u
Apart integrated Creative Commons licenses into their
blogging software early on. Flickr has included CC
licensing options in its photo service from the start. Online
video sites blip.tv and Rewer have bath integrated CC
licenses into video uploads while YouTube has integrated
a system called 'audioswap" to enable YouTube users to
draw upon Creat'we Commons licensed content to
produce their own video content and 'swap" out audio
files found to be used illegally. And the list goes on, as
Creative Commons has worked with Microsoft, Google,
Yahoo!, Apple and many other companies working to
lower the transaction cost associated with sharing and re-
use of content in the new world.

Thus, the Commons Deed now looks like this:

CC+
In its initial development, Creative Commons focused upon
the "sharing economy." Its objective has h a y s been to
provide a legal framework to protect content intended by
its copyright holder to be shared or remixed freely. The
objective so far has not been to facilitate the crossover
fmm the "sharing economy' to the "commercial economy."
Nothing in the CC charter opposed such a crossover;
indeed, the messaging around Creative Commons
encouraged it. But nothing in the architecture of the CC
infrastructure enabled a simple way for artists to signal and
embed the ability to link the "sharing economy' to a
"commercial economy."
In December, 2006, this limit bqan to change. Creative
Commons announced a beta pmtocol that would enable
CC licensed content to be directly linked to commercial
uses of that content. Using this protocol, CC licensed
content could include links to rights or uses beyond those
provided by the Creative Commons license. And, while CC
will never itself provide those commercial links, it will
enable others to use this CC+ infrastructure to leverage
commercial value out of otherwise freely distributed content.
With this new protocol, for example, a musician might
license a song under a CC BY-NCND license -
encouraging people to nonwmmercially share the song,
but not to remix it, or otherwise make derivatives of the
w o k Using this new infrastructure, however, the artist may
indicate a simple way that people could link back to a
commercial site to secure rights beyond those granted
automatically. The 'Commons Deed" signals that ability
through a new icon, and a link from that icon to the
appropriate site.
Q i i n g on the 'pennis&mns beyond" icon wwld then take
you to a awnmercial site - again, not mn by Cmatk
-
Camwns where the tenns for the rights beyond those
p n t e d by CC l i i could be negotiated. In thii
Eosmple, the Pump Audio l i i looks like this:

There is no limit to the commercial opportunitiesthet might

be specified beyond those in the CC h m e . The CC+
link could be to a site that o h one the ability to purchase
a CD M t-shirt with a specific photo that is l i d Mder
a W i e Commons license. Or, thii CCt link addfiionally
could be to an agency that sells unnmerdal rights to that
photo. The protocd is a general facirito link CC licensed
work with mmardal opportunitk Anyone may use thii
protocd to enable hybrid creaMy (See W2-t Technical
Implementation" docmrent).
This new protocol offers an obvious opportunw for
Crearire Commons rlcensad content to provide
competition to propreby commercial content Because
the bmasbudure permits any rights o g a n h h or agent
to be named to handle rights beyond those granted by the
CC license,
. . CCt enmurages cornpethion ammg these
o
- w agencies Since CCt gives asatas a
way to monetize uses beyond the noncanmial sharing
enabled by the lntemet, CCC encourages arbbts to make
their WMk available using this infrastnrdure. findb,
becarrse the CC licenses have become pewas.=
stamlards with h g e s d e adoption for user-gemmted
mntent licenses, organhatans trying to build businesses
m n d such content will have an obvious incentive to use
the standards set by Creatii Commons rather than
reinventingthe wheel by building their own.

aeative Commons provides free copyight licenses
which empowers authors and creators to mark their
M i with the freedom they intend it to cany. In this
document, we describe the implementation of a
technology we've developed to enable a simple click-
through to rights or opportunities beyond those offered in
the CC license. See this document's non-technical
companion, 'CC and CCt for the World Wide Web" for
a wnceptual description of this approach.
Overview
The round-tripimplementation consists of two operations:
1. Publishing a creative work along with a Creative
Commons license plus (+) a 'more permissions"
link on a web page.
2. Readlng the more permissons link
The first operation will be implemented by a publisher,
typically with sofhvare running on a web server. The
second operation will be implemented by a client,
typically a web browser or web service, like one that does
web mashups.
An application developer only needs to implement the
operations in scope of the a f o m t i o n e d client andlor
server a p p l i i n developed.
Publishing
CC license
W n g a notice that a aeative work on the web has been
Creative Commons licensed is done with a W andlor
@aphidnoti= visible on a web p w with a lidto the
li- used markedup in the undewng html For emple:
'My ycng' is license= under ca rel-'license'
hrrf='http:i/crsativecumns.org/Ilcenses/by
sai3.O/';.CC W;-SAc/s>.
More permissions link
Adding a mare permissions link simply consists of linking
to a page where more permissions for a work are
available and annotating that link For example:
CC+ Technical Implementation
for the World Wide Web
http:llcreativecommons.orglprojectsIeeplus
' M y Song I s I censsd under <a rel='license'
hreP-'hrrp://craarivac~mnonsorg/Ilcenses/by-
sa/30/;.CC BY-SAc/a>. For other perrnlss!ons <a
rmlns:cc-'htrp//craatIvecmns.org/ns#
rei-"cc:mrePermisslons'
h r a ~ = ' h t t p / / e x a r n p I e . ~ u r n / ~ f o r e / m yick
~~~~~cl
herec/a,,
Using RDFal, the cc: namespace definition could be
included in any parent e l e m Together the namespace
and re1 atbibute of the second link denote the predicate
of M t p J I ~ m o n s & ~ P e r m i with i
the current doament as the subject and
~ J I e x a m p l e . w m l s t o r e l ~as
g the object
Simply put, more permissions for the web page ai hand
may be found at M l p J I e x a m p l e d s t o r e l ~ .
Reading
Both the CC license and more permiasinns links may be
airacted from a web page with an RDFa par^^.
What a diem does with the links (once is highly
apprkation-specific Typn,kaily,the CC CC and more
permissions options will be bmught to the attention of the
user. tiramples ofthis nclnclude:
1. Creatk Commons' MozCO Extension for W l l a
Firefox d i i y s indicator icons in the browser's
status bar.
2. A boobnarklet could highlight relevent links on
a Pas=.
3.Creative C o m m a l i ideeds3 add notice of
more permissions availabaii based on annotations
found on the referring page.
4. An industry or eitsspecific d i n t could auto-
discover additional services available at the more
permissions link.
111 hUpJIrdfainfo
121 hUpJ~ll.creatiMmmmons.~~M&
181See h U p : / / l & . c r e a t i ~ m o ~ r g I m t a d s l a for he emn$ss
More Intormation
Please vieit MtpJlc/creativec~rmona09/pm~~ffiplus
Or please contact us at
~Jlcreativecommonsaglwntact
XMP (extensible Metadata Platform) Facilitates embeddimg
metadata in files using a subset of RDF. Most notably, XMP
supports embedding metadata in PDF and many image
formats. though it is designed to support neatly any file type.
Creative Commons reconunemls XMP as the preferred
format for embedded rnetadata, given b suppart for
numerous file formats and the balkanid state of embedded
metadata standards. Others are coming to a similar
conclusion; Microsoft has announced support for XMP in
V I appliilcatms[lland Jon Udell not- "Them's slso good
support in .NET Framework 3.0 for reading and writing XMP
metadatan[21 Note that even when embedded with XMP
metadata, Creative Commons recommends a licensed
document include a visible copyright notice. Format-specific
recommendations for visible notices are available in the
('Aeafive Commons wikif31.
The Creatii Commons licensing process offers an XMP
template as part of the licens selection process which may
be used to mark files within XMP-supporting Adobe
applications.
Specifying License Information
XMP defines a rights management schema IXMP Spec 421.
Creative Commons sets the following properties:
xmpRightt:Marksd - Indicates this is a protected
resource; Fake ifPublic Domain. True otherwise.
xmpRight%WebStatement -The location of a web
page describing the owner and/or rights statement for
this resource; for example, MtpJIexampkcom/pdf-
metadatahtml. Creative Commons recommendsthis
resource contain embedded, machine-readable
metadata.
xmpRiihtrr:UsageTenns - An optional field
describing lwalterms of use; Creative Commons
recommendsthat when present this take the form
T h i s w r k i s IicellSSO tO t h e public under m e Creacvs
Cmm Attribution-SharaAiike IIcsnse
hm:f/creati-ma,org/iicmsas/by-sa/?,O/ verify a t
h~ilexamplacon~pdr-mgt~d~te~hunl
(Replace URL following 'verifyat' with URL containing
metadata about the XMP-embedded file; this ia typically
the URL specified by anpRigM8:WebStatsment.)
We also defme a h a t i v e Commons schema
~JIcxea~mons.orgIn& whose common prefix is cc.
It currently has the following properties:
l i -The license URL; for example,
hUp://creativewmmons.orgllicenses/by~
moraPermicuions - A URL where additional
permissions (commercial licensing, etc) are adable.
This URL should typically be exposed in a "dickable'
fashion, providing publishers with an opporlunw to
dme M i back to the originating site.
attributionURL -The URL to use when attributing
this work
athibutionhme -The cmator's pretened name to
use when attributing this work.
Verification Links and XMP
A publisher can add boost wmidence in embedded
rnetadata by providing a verifying web statement. A verifying
web statement is a URL which contains metadata with
assertions matching those embedded in the file. The
diirence is that instead of making the assertions about a
URL, the assertions are made in reference to the SHA-1 hash
of the file.
For example, the example web statement
MtpJIexample.wd~metadatahtmlwould include metadata
encoded as RDFa.
cp>The documem evample.pdP i s licensed lower a
<a about-'urn:shal M S M B C S M U D L T C 2 6 U T 5 W 7 G ~ ~
TBI-'I imse'
nrer-'ntq:i/creotivlc-ns.orgili.2en~/~/?.OF%
Creative Gmmw A r t r l b u t i o n 3 . k / e > Ii-s.
</a>
</P>
When processing a file ccntaining an embedded web
statement, an appliiion can retrieve the statement and
parse it for addiiional mtadata. If matching assert.m are
found which apply to the calculated SHA-1 hash of the file,
the application can display an indicator noting increased
confidence m the metadata This approach has the added
benefit of taking advantage of an existing mechanism
(copy~ighttakedown procedures) in order to break the
confidence in the case of inappropriately licensed material,
thereby limiting liabilii.

References

EMP Spec1 "XMP Specification (September 2006)".

httpfIw..adobe.com/devneffapl

License
This document is licensed under the Creative Commons
A t t n i o n 3.0 license; license infonnatksn is available at
Mtp://creativecommons.o@ice~I3.0/.

More Information
Please visa MtpJhviki.creativewmmonaorgMMP
Or please contact m at
MtpJIaeativecanmons.orglcontact