License Versions

This page identifies some of the improvements to the Creative Commons license suite from the publication of the first licenses in December, 2002, through the current version 3.0, and highlights important similarities among the major license versions released to date.

License Blog Posts

Initial version, released 2002-12-16. http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/3484

International License Development Processes

Released 2004-05-25. Changes explained at http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4216

License Suite Version Chart

Released 2005-06. Changes described at: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5447 and http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5457

Nomenclature (for unported licenses)

Released 2007-02-23. Version 3 explains the changes.

Technical measures by licensees prohibited

Version 3.01 was discussed 2007-10, work will be folded into a future version, possibly a version 3.5, proposed 2007-12, possibly a version 4.0 over a longer time period (3.01 and 3.5 are not now in active discussion and there may never be CC licenses with those version numbers).

Attribution to author required

Attribution to others contemplated

Requests for removal of attribution contemplated

Collecting societies regimes addressed

Representations and warranties by licensor included

"No endorsement" clause included

Moral rights clause included

Adaptations (if allowed) must be marked as such

Definition of "NonCommercial" unchanged (same in all versions)

Use of licenses for copyrightable compilations of data anticipated

Compatible licenses may be used for adaptations of works originally offered under CC ShareAlike licenses

Sui generis rights in data addressed