How would you feel if your work is copied and shared by others without your consent and credits? You would either report the person who copied your work or think about filing a lawsuit. Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else’s statements, ideas or facts and representing them as your own. Although many people do it on purpose, it is also possible to do so without intentions due to absence of sufficient references. But what if you want others to showcase your work by your name and consent, you will add a ‘Creative Commons’ tag with your work. Creative commons content has six distinct licenses available, and all you must do is associate one to your work.
Such licensed content is ideal for music, images, sound effects, and other applications. You must abide by the terms of the CC licenses as they provide more flexibility than conventional copyright law. When using creative commons content, you need to attribute it to avoid plagiarism. It is the least you could do given that the producers are allowing you to use their work for free. Is using creative commons content with references a kind of plagiarism? Follow this article by expert assignment writers to know more:
What is Creative Commons Content?
Creative commons refers to methods of providing a specific form of copyright permission to your creative work or copyrights. It allows others to reuse it while adhering to law and certain restrictions that you define. The creative commons copyright licenses and services strike a balance within the conventional “all rights reserved” copyrights law. Creative commons solutions provide a straightforward and standardized approach for everyone. It provides solutions to individual artists to huge organizations and institutions. CC issues copyright clearances to their creative work.
The confluence of their technologies and users has resulted in a massive and expanding digital commons. Creative commons content allows a heap of material to reproduce, share, modify, alter, and expand upon within the bounds of copyright law. Many significant aspects are shared by all Creative commons licenses. Every license assists creators, known as licensors, in retaining ownership. They enable others to reproduce, disseminate and use their work at least non-commercially. Each creative commons license also guarantees that licensors receive the attribution they deserve. Every creative commons license is valid worldwide. These basic aspects serve as the foundation on which licensors opt to provide extra rights.
Kinds of Plagiarism and Creative Commons Content
Complete plagiarism is the most serious type of plagiarism in which a researcher takes a study written by someone else and submits it under his or her own name. It is the same as creative stealing. Creative commons content must be referenced to avoid plagiarism with a proper creative common license. Plagiarism may arise because of many sorts of sources. A false citation occurs when a scholar refers to a publication that is erroneous or does not exist. Plagiarism also occurs when a researcher cites only the primary source and not secondary. If you do not want anyone to attribute your work to anyone else, you must add a ‘CC BY NC’ license. Straightforward plagiarism occurs when the author takes another author’s words and use it as his own.
For this, one must add a creative commons content BY license (CC BY). It entails adapting someone else’s writing with slight alterations to the sentences and passing it off as one’s own. It is a serious offense, and one must add a creative commons ND (CC BY-ND) license if they do not want others to modify their content. Accidental plagiarism is when a person fails to acknowledge their sources and misinterprets the references. When someone accidentally rephrases a publication by using similar terms or sentence patterns without acknowledgment, he must ensure correct referencing for creative commons content.
Creative Commons Licenses
There are six creative commons licenses that are discussed below. The pairs of letters denote when and how to use the license. This way you can reference your creative commons content without plagiarism.
CC BY (ATTRIBUTION)
This license lets you copy, share, modify, and display someone else’s work only of you credit the original creator. You can use such work for commercial use and is the most accommodating license.
CC BY-SA (ATTRIBUTION SHARE ALIKE)
The CC BY-SA license is also an unrestricted license. The initials SA (share alike) imply that the modified work should be published under the same usage rights, and hence under the same Creative Commons license. If you need to change the derivatives for commercial use, you will still have to attribute to the original creator.
CC BY-NC (ATTRIBUTION NON-COMMERCIAL)
As per this license, you can build upon and modify original work but non-commercially. You still must attribute the original creator and copy and publish.
CC BY-ND (ATTRIBUTION NON-DERIVATIVE)
You cannot modify the creative commons content under this license. But it allows you to redistribute, copy and publish content both in commercial and non-commercial.
CC BY-NC-SA (ATTRIBUTION NON-COMMERCIAL SHARE ALIKE)
You must license your new work on the original license under this license. You cannot use these creative commons content commercially. The rest of the requirements stay the same. You can copy and publish the content and you can modify it. But attribution to the original creator is still a requirement.
CC BY-NC-ND (ATTRIBUTION NON-COMMERCIALS NON-DERIVATIVE)
This license does not allow you to use others’ content for commercial purposes. It also does not allow you to modify and adapt someone else’s creative commons content. But you can still copy and publish the content with attributions to the original creator. You can use the license type for your own purposes as well. Yet, it is the most restrictive kind of CC license amongst all others.
Conclusion
Creative commons is a method of providing a specific form of copyright permission to your creative work or copyrights. You need to attribute someone else’s work with respect to law and you cannot steal anyone’s work. Plagiarism is a serious crime and refers to stealing someone else’s work. Creative commons content allows a heap of material to reproduce, share, modify, alter, and expand upon within the bounds of copyright law. So, one must know the difference between plagiarism and attribution of content. Is using creative commons content with references a kind of plagiarism? You know the answer now.
