Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)
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| Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) |
| Author | Creative Commons |
| Released | 2004 |
| Version | 4.0 (2013) |
| License | Attribution-NonCommercial |
| Website | Creative Commons |
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) is a public copyright license developed to allow sharing and adaptation of creative works while prohibiting commercial exploitation without permission. Intended by its creators to balance creator control and public access, the license has influenced practices among artists, publishers, museums, universities, and technology platforms. Its terms have been debated in legal forums, policy discussions, and adoption by institutions across media industries and cultural heritage sectors.
Overview
The CC BY-NC license was drafted by Lawrence Lessig's network at Creative Commons and promulgated during early releases alongside other licenses referenced by actors such as Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger, and organizations like Wikimedia Foundation and Mozilla Foundation. It emerged amid debates at events including the Open Source Initiative conferences and consultations with stakeholders such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, British Library, and Library of Congress. The license has been used by creators ranging from musicians associated with SoundCloud and Bandcamp to photographers contributing to Flickr and curators at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern. Policy debates have intersected with initiatives such as Open Access, projects like Wikipedia, and governments including United Kingdom and United States that considered open-licensing in their public-sector information strategies.
License Terms and Conditions
The CC BY-NC permit requires attribution to the original creator, aligning with practices in academic institutions such as Oxford University and Cambridge University, publishers like Penguin Books and Taylor & Francis, and platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. It prohibits commercial uses without authorization, a point relevant to corporations like Google, Facebook, Amazon (company), and media companies such as The New York Times and BBC. The license is offered in ported and unported forms affecting jurisdictions like European Union, Canada, Australia, and India and was updated in the 4.0 revision to address cross-border enforceability used by entities including World Intellectual Property Organization and courts in United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit contexts. Rights retained by licensors often interact with statutory regimes like the Berne Convention and instruments endorsed by bodies such as UNESCO.
Permitted and Restricted Uses
Under CC BY-NC, derivatives and reproductions are allowed for non-commercial activities carried out by nonprofits like Amnesty International, academic projects at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California, and cultural initiatives at Smithsonian Institution and Getty Museum. Commercial enterprises including Apple Inc., Microsoft, Netflix, and Spotify must obtain separate licenses to exploit material for profit, a distinction that has produced negotiations involving publishers like Springer Nature and record labels such as Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Activities considered commercial have been analyzed relative to contexts like Creative Commons Global Summit discussions, campaigns by Electronic Frontier Foundation, and guidance from legal scholars at institutions like Columbia Law School and Harvard Law School.
Relationship to Other Creative Commons Licenses and Versions
CC BY-NC sits among licenses including Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND), and Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA). Version updates from 2.0 to 4.0 responded to issues raised by stakeholders such as Free Software Foundation and practitioners at Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, and OpenStreetMap. Comparisons are relevant to projects like Wikimedia Commons and repositories at arXiv and Zenodo which set policy distinctions between permissive and non-permissive reuse, and influenced institutional policies at Wellcome Trust and funding agencies such as National Institutes of Health.
Legal Interpretation and Case Law
Courts and tribunals have considered the scope of "non-commercial" in disputes involving entities such as Getty Images, Associated Press, AgfaPhoto and litigants in cases heard in courts like the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and appellate decisions in the European Court of Justice. Legal analysis by firms and clinics at Stanford Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and organizations such as Public Knowledge has focused on statutory interpretation, contract principles, and doctrines referenced in rulings concerning intermediaries like eBay and Craigslist. Debates have invoked treaties and principles from World Trade Organization discussions and commentary by jurists from courts including the Supreme Court of the United States and constitutional scholars at Yale Law School.
Adoption, Use Cases, and Criticism
Adoption spans creators and institutions from Pixabay contributors and Flickr Commons collections to institutional programs at Harvard Library, British Museum, and New York Public Library. Use cases include academic publishing experiments at PLOS and PeerJ, multimedia releases by artists collaborating with labels like Ninja Tune and festivals such as SXSW, and educational resources used in programs by Khan Academy and Coursera. Criticism has been voiced by advocates including Lawrence Lessig critics and organizations like Creative Commons Global affiliates, with concerns raised about ambiguity in "non-commercial" use affecting stakeholders such as freelance creators, cultural institutions, and commercial aggregators like Shutterstock and Getty Images. Policy reform proposals have been discussed in venues like Open Knowledge Foundation meetings and legislative reviews in parliaments such as European Parliament.