Copyright for WMDD

Open licenses provide an alternative to traditional copyright. They allow creators to retain selected rights within their bundle of copyrights, while waiving others. 

For example, a photographer may retain the right to be credited, but waive the right to benefit financially from use of their work. This makes it easier for others to use and share their work.

There are many different open licensing models. Creative Commons is one of the most widely used and recognized.

GitHub provides choosealicense.com/ to help open source contributors select a license that best meets their needs. Some communities have preferred licenses. To find a project's license, look for a file called LICENSE or COPYING, and skim the project’s README.

Creative Commons offers six copyright licenses, based on combinations of the four conditions outlined below. 

Attribution (BY) - All CC licenses require that others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.

ShareAlike (SA) - You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.

NonCommercial (NC) - You let others copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permisbision first.

NoDerivatives (ND) - You let others copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.

See the Creative Commons Licenses: Most to Least Open diagram on this page for details about the six licenses.