Creative Commons License Design
Creative Commons Licenses are built with a focus on both ease of use and legal enforceability. They offer a free and easy way for creators to share their work, allowing them to voluntarily grant permissions for others to use without giving up all of their rights to the work. It is important to note that these licenses are also legally enforceable.
Let’s take a look at the three-layer design of the Creative Commons license.
Layer 1: Legal Code
The base layer of the Creative Commons license is the legal code upon which it is based. The legal code has been updated a number of times over the years and is now utilizing version 4.0.
This layer of the Creative Commons license provides a base code that can be used by a lawyer to enforce the creator’s claims to the work.
Layer 2: Human Readable
Layer 3: Machine Readable Licensing
The final layer is a way for the CC licenses to be interpreted by software. Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (CC REL) can be embedded to provide a way for machines to interpret the metadata specifying the rights of the license. This “machine-readable” information can help search engines discover works with a Creative Commons license.
References:
“3.1 License Design and Terminology / 1” (https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/3-1-license-design-and-terminology/) by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.
