Charlotte Jones

Technology in the Classroom

WSQ2
August 21, 2015

Creative Commons
Creative Commons is where the owner of an idea or creation online wants people to use
and share their ideas. With Creative Commons it gives the creator a license to let people share
their work legally and without having to ask permission. Similar to Copyright and Fair Use,
Creative Commons has a list of rules and guidelines for each person that wants to reuse the
original creation or idea.
There are four guidelines to use when you are sharing or reusing someone elses work.
They are as follows:
1. Attribution- you must acknowledge the owner of the original work before you use it. So
however you plan to use someones work whether it is written, video, or artwork you must
give them credit.
2. Non-Commercial- Only the owner of the creation or idea is allowed to make a profit from
their work. If you use their idea and receive monetary gain from it you have violated the
Creative Commons guidelines and used their work illegally.
3. No Derivatives- The owner has not given permission to change their work in any way. So
just say you are reusing someones work and you want to change the color to better suit your
needs. You cannot do that because it will violate the guidelines of Creative Commons. So to

be fair to the owner and remain in legal compliance with Creative Commons, it is best to
keep the artwork how it was originally.
4. Share Alike- New creations hat use the original owners ideas has to use the same license
that the owner used. You are allowed to share their work and make a new creation without
changing their piece. You have to put the same license that they used and give them credit in
your work. So if someone decides they want to share your work, the piece that you used
from the other person is still protected because you used the same license and guidelines
they used.
Creative Commons has a lot of different variations on how to use their licenses. It is better to
play it safe and make yourself familiar with the rules and guidelines. That way you protect yours
and the original creators work.

Confusion- How can you see what their license is on a persons creation or idea?
Discussion- How are Creative Commons and Fair Use similar?
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Creative Commons and Fair Use are similar because they both have rules and guidelines
to work by. These rules are similar in that you cannot receive monetary gain from
someones work, you also cannot change their creation in any way. The only real
difference is that in Creative Commons the owner of the creation or idea wants you to
share and reuse their work.