Compatibility of Creative Commons Licenses

The Share-Alike clause in some of the Creative Commons licenses makes it so that creative works licensed with some CC licenses cannot be remixed with creative works licensed with some other CC licenses. Read these questions and answers from the CC FAQ and then check your understanding by playing the game linked below.

Can I combine works that use different Creative Commons licenses into my work?

It depends. You may only remix works released under different CC licenses if the terms of the licenses involved permit it. The NoDerivatives licenses do not permit remixing at all. All the other CC licenses allow remixes, but may impose conditions on how the remix may be used. For example, if you create a remix with a work licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that the remix is licensed under the same license conditions. Likewise, if you want to use the remixed work for commercial purposes, you cannot incoporate a work released under one of the NonCommercial licenses. Review the charts below for more details on whether and how differently licensed works can be combined and licensed.

If I derive or adapt a work offered under a Creative Commons license, which CC license(s) can I apply to the resulting work?

The chart below details the CC license(s) you may apply to the resulting work. Please note that this chart is not a substitute for legal advice and should not be relied upon as legal advice.

The green boxes indicate where compatibility exists between licenses. When modifying a work licensed under the license identified in the lefthand column, you may license the adaptation under one of the licenses indicated on the top row if the corresponding box is green. White boxes indicate those licenses that you should not use for the adapted work. In the absence of an applicable copyright exception or limitation, you cannot adapt works that contain the No Derivatives license element.

Compatibility chart		Terms that may be used for a derivative work or adaptation
Compatibility chart		BY	BY-NC	BY-NC-ND	BY-NC-SA	BY-ND	BY-SA	PD
Status of original work	PD
	BY
	BY-NC
	BY-NC-ND
	BY-NC-SA
	BY-ND
	BY-SA

Abbreviation Key

BY = Attribution only
BY-ND = Attribution-NoDerivatives
BY-NC-ND = Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives
BY-NC = Attribution-NonCommercial
BY-NC-SA = Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike
BY-SA = Attribution-ShareAlike
PD = Dedicated to or marked as being in the public domain via one of our public domain tools, or other public domain work; adaptations of works in the public domain may be built upon and licensed by the creator under any license terms desired

Check Your Understanding

To make sure you're tracking this tricky compatibility issue, play several hands of the OER Remix Game. Play until you can win the game several times consecutively before moving on. Click the image below to begin.