Use Creative Commons Licenses

Collective work defined by the Canadian Copyright Act

1. an encyclopaedia, dictionary, year book or similar work,
2. a newspaper, review, magazine or similar periodical, and
3. any work written in distinct parts by different authors, or in which works or parts of works of different authors are incorporated;

Collections (or collective works) incorporate but do not modify other creative works.

An example would be a collection of CC-licensed photographs arranged in a PowerPoint presentation.

How do I choose a Creative Commons license for my collection?

• Your license does not include the works that you have incorporated and compiled. 
• Your license does include the components that you have contributed (such as the arrangement, commentary, etc…)
• Your license must not contradict the licenses of the incorporated works
  • If an incorporated work has a non-commercial (NC) license element, you must include an NC element in your license
  • Since you are not modifying the works the Share Alike (SA) and No Derivatives (ND) elements do not come into play.

For more information, please visit the Creative Commons FAQ on selecting a license for your collection. 

• Adaptations may also be called derivatives or remixes
• An adaptation is a work based on a prior work that manifests sufficient new creativity to be copyrightable
• Copyright law is determined nationally and can vary between countries
• Even within countries the determination of what “manifests sufficient new creativity” is subjective and open to interpretation
• Minor spelling and punctuation changes are usually not considered an adaptation

Examples of adaptations:

• Creating a movie based on a book
• Translating a novel into another language
• Synching music to moving images

You cannot license or share adaptations of works that have the ND (NoDerivatives) license element, but you can create them for personal use if licensed under version 4.0 or above.

How do I combine works? 

• When you combine multiple works, you must ensure the licenses of the original works are compatible.
• We already know we cannot license adapted works with the ND element, so these cannot be included in adaptations.
• Incorporating works with a ShareAlike (SA) license necessitates that all other incorporated works use the same license or a compatible one.

Please visit the Creative Commons website to learn more about combining material under different CC licenses. 

How do I choose a Creative Commons license for my adaptation? 

• Your license must take into account the licenses of the works that are incorporated into the adaptation.
• The original license always applies to the work(s) you are adapting even once adapted.

Please visit the Creative Commons website to learn more about combining material under different CC licenses.