One of the most incredible aspects of the internet is the free sharing of resources and ideas!  Many individuals are choosing to share their work without asking for any kind of payment while others share for free but pay for their time to develop these resources by putting ads on their blogs or sites. The following is a description of two systems that indicate that the material is freely shared. Note that you should still check each post for the way you must cite the material but you don't have to pay for it.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is non-profit organization which has created a way for those who create material to say to the world, "here's the way you can use and adapt my work."  They have created a system of licenses that creators use to indicate if and how others can legally share or adapt their original material. 

What that means for you is that you don't have to ask to use the work (which, if you were doing outside of any in-class situation, you would have to ask). The creator still usually expects credit, however. The creator will also indicate if he or she allows derivative works (adapting or changing the original) as long as the original license is also used.

Creative Commons-licensed works are still copyrighted and CC is a way to standardize re-use and re-mixing under specific conditions  In general, what it means for you is that if you search for Creative Commons material, you know that you don't have to ask for permission to reprint or use the material. Without CC, you would have to contact the creator of the material and request permission for most situations outside of the classroom.

The most common CC symbols are:

	Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform your copyrighted work – and derivative works based upon it – but only if they give you credit. All CC licenses contain this condition. (The By icon is an older version)
	Non-Commercial. You let others copy, distribute, display and perform your work – and derivative works based upon it – but for non-commercial purposes only. If they want to use your work for commercial purposes, they must contact you for permission.  The second icon represents the Euro version of non-commercial.
	Share Alike. You allow others to distribute derivative works but only only under the same conditions as you made your work available.
	No Derivative Works. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not make derivative works based on it. If they want to translate, alter, transform, or combine your work with other works, they must contact you for permission.

The Most Commonly Used Licenses are:

	Attribution CC BY	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. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
	Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA	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. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
	Attribution-NoDerivs CC BY-ND	This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
	Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC	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.
	Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA	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.
	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND	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.

The above material is licensed for reuse with attribution.

Using other People’s Work under CC

And for those that are wondering, unless a website, wiki or blog includes a Creative Commons licence, all content on that blog is automatically the copyright of the creator.  If you plan to use work that has been licenced under creative commons, make sure you read the licence attached to it first and comply with the conditions of use, to avoid unintentionally breaching the author’s copyright.

How to Attribute

• Title – if available
•  Author – name or username, best if linked to a user page
•  Source – linked to original page where it was found
•  Licence - type of CC licence, eg. CC BY 2.0 – linked to actual licence information
  

How to Attribute if you have Modified Slightly

As above, then include: how you’ve modified, eg. Greyscale from original

How to Attribute a Derivative Work

If you’ve made a whole new piece based on the original…

This work, “your title”, is a derivative of “Original Title” by {author} (linked),
used under [licence type].

“Your title” is licenced under licence type by {Your Name}.

For more, please see: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking/Users

Good article on Creative Commons including some of the problems: http://judeumeh.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/creative-commons-addressing-the-perils-of-re-using-digital-content/

Glossary of Social Technology Terms: http://www.socialbysocial.com/book/key-concepts