AP CSP Day 68: Creative Commons Licensing Restrictions | Cycle 3
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Creative Commons (CC) licenses specify how others may use a work. BY requires credit. SA requires derivatives to use the same license. NC prohibits commercial use. ND prohibits modified versions. Understanding which uses are permitted under each license type is tested on the AP CSP exam.
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Creative Commons License Types
Common Combinations
CC BY: credit the creator, otherwise do anything. CC BY-SA: credit, derivatives use same license. CC BY-NC: credit, no commercial use. CC BY-NC-ND: credit, no commercial, no modifications. Restrictions stack.
What Counts as Commercial?
Commercial use means use primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. A company promoting a product is commercial. A student’s school project is typically non-commercial.
Practice Question
An image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Consider the following uses:
I. A student modifies the image for a free educational blog post, credits the creator, and licenses the post under CC BY-NC-SA.
II. A company uses the unmodified image with attribution in a paid advertisement.
III. A teacher shares the unmodified image with students in a classroom presentation, crediting the creator.
Which uses are permitted under this license?
Use I: credit given (BY), non-commercial (NC satisfied), derivative shared under same license (SA satisfied). Use III: credit given (BY), classroom is non-commercial (NC satisfied), image is unmodified (SA does not apply). Use II: a paid advertisement is commercial, violating NC.
A) Excludes Use III, but sharing an unmodified image with attribution for non-commercial purposes is permitted. B) Excludes Use I, but the student satisfies all three restrictions. C) Includes Use II, but paid advertising violates the NonCommercial restriction.
Students confuse SA (ShareAlike) with ND (NoDerivatives). SA allows modifications as long as the derivative uses the same license. ND prohibits modifications entirely. This license is SA, so modifications are allowed.
Break the license code apart: BY = credit, SA = share derivatives under same license, NC = no money, ND = no changes. Check each restriction against the proposed use.
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