If you plan to file and pay for U.S. formal copyright - which is described on the Process for Dissertation/Process for Thesis tabs of this guide - then you do not need to file for a Creative Commons license. You only need to have one or the other, NOT BOTH. While not as robust, a Creative Commons license is a FREE alternative to protecting your work in an open access environment, and the information below can help you choose which option works best for you.
A CC license tells a user exactly how they can use your work. Think of it like the copyright symbol but a user wouldn't need to contact you in order to find out what uses are permissible with your work.
Visit the Copyright Basics LibGuide to learn about Copyright.
Foter. (ND). Copyright Commons Licenses. Retrieved from https://www.wur.nl/en/article/What-are-Creative-Commons-licenses.htm CC-BY-SA
| Icon | License | Permissions |
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Attribution | This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. |
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Attribution - Sharealike | This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. |
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Attribution - Noderivs | This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. |
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Attribution - Noncommercial | This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. |
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Attribution - noncommerical - sharealike |
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. |
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Attribution - noncommerical - noderivs | This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. |