Art Subject Guide

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Their free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses let you easily change your copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. Their tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work.

This checklist is a tool to assist you in applying the balancing test for determining whether you may make or distribute copies of works protected by copyright without having to obtain the permission of the copyright holder.

This tool can help you better understand the duration of copyright for unpublished works, and for works first published in the U.S. or simultaneously in the U.S. and abroad.

This resource provides a few general strategies about how to use fair use policies and copyright laws.

This tool can help you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code.