What are Creative Commons Licenses?

Transcript:
This video will introduce you to Creative Commons licenses, which makes copyright easier to understand.

Let’s say you create something.

This thing could be creative, like a picture of your cat, or scholarly, like an essay about cats.

Because you are the creator of this picture or this essay, copyright allows you to decide what people can do with your creation.

[Dialogue bubble appears on screen: X is okay but you shouldn’t do Y with my work.]

When you are the copyright holder, people have to ask you for permission before putting your cat picture into a PowerPoint or adapting your cat essay into a movie.

Getting permission can be time consuming and complicated for both the creator and the user.

[The following dialogue bubbles appear on screen: Who has copyright? How do I contact them?! I need to know if I can use this ASAP (as soon as possible)!]

This is where Creative Commons can help.