Creative Commons

Creative Commons or CC is a non-profit organisation that provides free licences for authors, musicians and other creators.  Work created by someone is automatically protected by copyright, but a creator can apply a Creative Commons licence and allow the general public to access and use their content for their own purposes, so long as it follows the conditions set by the creator.

There is a great PDF designed for teachers and students to understand Creative Commons.  You can view the PDF here.

The different licences available are:

Attribution

Attribution Share Alike

Attribution No Derivative Works

Attribution Non-Commercial

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

 This is the information regarding the Licence terms:

Attribution BY	Noncommercial NC	No Derivative Works ND	Share Alike SA
This applies to every Creative Commons work. Whenever a work is copied or redistributed under a Creative Commons licence, the original creator (and any other nominated parties) must be credited and the source linked to.	Lets others copy, distribute, display and perform the work for noncommercial purposes only.	Lets others distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work. They may not adapt or change the work in any way.	Allows others to remix, adapt and build on the work, but only if they distribute the derivative works under the same the licence terms that govern the original work.

Smart Copying has a comprehensive list of "Creative Commons and other Open Access Resources on the Web".

There are also a couple of animations on the Creative Commons website that are fun and simple to help understand how Creative Commons works.  Here is the link to the 1st animation "Mayer and Bettle" http://creativecommons.org.au/content/mayer-and-bettle.mov