How do I choose among the six standard Creative Commons licences?

Start with the permissions you want to grant: include NC if commercial use should be restricted, include ND if adaptations should not be distributed, and include SA if distributed adaptations should stay under the same or a compatible licence. All six standard licences require attribution. Before publishing, confirm that you control the copyright in the recording, composition, samples, and performances you are licensing.

What does the ShareAlike condition require?

ShareAlike generally means that when someone distributes an adaptation of your BY-SA or BY-NC-SA work, they must offer that adaptation under the same or a compatible licence. Attribution and any other licence conditions still apply. Check compatibility before combining a ShareAlike source with material under different terms.

What does NoDerivatives mean for a music user?

A licence with NoDerivatives permits sharing the original work, but it does not grant permission to distribute an adapted version. A remix, edit, sample-based track, or other transformation may therefore need separate permission, even when the unchanged track was available to download and share.

What should a proper Creative Commons attribution include?

A useful credit normally names the work and creator, links to the source and the licence, and identifies changes you made. Put it where a reasonable listener can find it, such as release notes, a video description, metadata, or a credits page. Do not imply that the original creator endorses your use.

Are Creative Commons licences internationally portable, especially version 4.0?

Creative Commons licences are designed for international use, and version 4.0 was written to be more globally consistent without requiring a separate ported version for each country. Local copyright exceptions, moral rights, collecting-society rules, and other rights can still vary, so a CC label is not a guarantee that every use is cleared everywhere.

What rights does a Creative Commons label not cover?

A CC licence covers only the copyright permissions the licensor can grant. It does not automatically clear another person’s sample or performance, and it may not cover trademark, privacy, publicity, moral-rights, or contractual restrictions. Trace the rights in every element of a release instead of treating the CC label as a universal clearance.

Creative Commons · LicenseTrack resources

CC Licensing Mechanics: A Practical Guide to the Six Creative Commons Licences

Creative Commons labels are compact, but the decisions behind them are not. Use this practical map to choose a licence, satisfy its conditions, and spot the rights that still need separate permission.

Published 2 September 2026Last updated: 2 September 20269 min read

The permission field guide

Quick answers

The details that change the permission

Use these answers as a review checklist before you publish, remix, or rely on a Creative Commons label. The deed and legal code for the exact licence still control.

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How Creative Commons licensing works in practice

The details that change the permission

How do I choose among the six standard Creative Commons licences?

What does the ShareAlike condition require?

What does NoDerivatives mean for a music user?

What should a proper Creative Commons attribution include?

Are Creative Commons licences internationally portable, especially version 4.0?

What rights does a Creative Commons label not cover?

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