Creative Commons Austria
Licensing toolbox for the publication of texts, images, music or videos
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 in the USA. There is also a Creative Commons chapter in Austria.
The organization publishes standard license agreements with which an author can grant rights to use his or her own work to the public. The licenses can be applied to any work covered by copyright. These include texts, images, pieces of music, video clips and many more.
This gives creators the opportunity to label their own work and define terms of use.
Allow adaptations of your work to be shared?
Yes / No / Yes, as long as others share alike
Allow commercial uses of your work?
Yes / No
Yes - Adaptations of the work may be shared
Yes - Commercial uses of the work are permitted
CC BY 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Yes, as long as others share alike
Yes - Commercial uses of the work are permitted
CC BY-SA 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
No - Adaptations of the work may not be shared
Yes - Commercial uses of the work are permitted
CC BY-ND 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yes - Adaptations of the work may be shared
No - Commercial uses of the work are not allowed
CC BY-NC 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Yes, as long as others share alike
No - Commercial uses of the work are not allowed
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
No - Adaptations of the work may not be shared
No - Commercial uses of the work are not allowed
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attributuion - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Seven license types
Licenses from most to least open
Depending on the answers to the questions, the CC licenses differ considerably. Some CC licenses severely restrict use, while others ensure that copyright is waived as far as possible.
CC offers seven license types. The respective license is attached to the work, so other users know under what conditions the work can be used.
Free content is important for other creative professionals who, for example, modify or artistically process works for their own work.
Three license levels
readable even for search engines
Each license has three levels: a legal text, easy-to-understand symbols and a machine-readable code.
This also enables search engines to distinguish which images may be shared, for example. On Google, the corresponding filter can be found in the advanced search.
On 09.07.2020 the foundation of the CC AT Chapter took place via video conference. fairkom was the Public Lead until 2018, but the governance was changed internationally. Alexander Baratsits was elected as Chapter Lead, Roland Alton-Scheidl as Representative to CC Global Network. So in terms of people, nothing new. If you would like to get involved or take on a role, please contact we [ät] creativecommons.at.
With the foundation of the chapter, we can continue our active role in legislative processes, for example with statements.
Draft statement on the UrhG amendment in Austria 2021 (October 2021).
Statement on the working group drafts of the upcoming UrhG amendment in Austria 2021 (December 2020).
Statement on BMJ's first implementation draft on text and data mining and exceptions for digital uses in teaching and learning (July 2020).
Statement on the implementation of the Digital Single Market Directive, a proposal to establish a Digital Fund, OER and Commons as a public service mission (November 2019).
We started in 2004 with an art action in Austria: 1000 "Open Source Water Bottles" were bottled at the Hatler Brunnen in Dornbirn and brought to the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz when Creative Commons won the Golden Nica. Since then, a dedicated team has been handling licensing issues for content and how to free it from unnecessary copyright shackles. We do promotion, maintain translation and show applications of intangible commons.
The most beautiful success is not only the more than 1 billion works that have been placed under a CC license worldwide, but also Austria's pioneering role: the cities of Graz, Linz and Vienna placed publicly available data under a CC-by license for the first time in 2011 in their Open Data Initiative; meanwhile, more than 23,000 data sets are available in the Austrian Open Government Data Portal and more than 400 data sets in the sister portal Open Data Portal Austria.
If you would like to be kept up to date on our activities or ask questions or provide answers on licensing topics, please feel free to join our public CC-at chat channel. The CC-at mailing list has been archived.
The following members of the fairkom society take care of Creative Commons in Austria on a voluntary basis:
- DI Dr. Roland Alton (Public Lead AT)
- Dr. Alexander Baratsits MAS (Legal Lead AT)
The core team, which can advise on issues of education, archiving or technology, also includes:
- Dr. Joachim Losehand (Science Communication)
- Mag. Gernot Hausar (Open Educational Resources)
- Dr. Nicole Lieger (CC Community Manager)
Contact: we [ät] creativecommons.at
We have been doing this for quite a long time. If you want to get actively involved or replace us, please contact us!
Find CC licensed images, music, videos and text with the
Support the infrastructure of CC Austria financially