## Explanation of the license terms

In the previous segment you’ve learned which Creative Commons licenses there are and what they permit and require. The requirement of attribution under BY is pretty clear cut. The other terms of use have some intricacies for which additional explanation may be helpful.

NC, Non-commercial use
Non-commercial use is defined by Creative Commons as “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.” So, this depends on the use, not the user. For instance, you are a non-profit school and you want to sell your students notebooks with an image on the cover. If that image had a NC license this use would not be permitted.
NC also applies to the user of a work, not to the creator. Someone who licensed work with a NC license may still offer commercial permissions to fee-paying customers for this work. While also offering your material to the public under a NonCommercial license.

ND, No derivatives
The ND licenses does not allow adaptations or derivatives of the work to be shared. This means that if you make changes to a work with a ND license, you are not allowed to share the altered version with others. If your changes create a ‘derivative’ also plays a part in this.
Changes that are not seen as making are derivative are:

- Mechanical reproduction into a different format. E.g. from paper to PDF.
- Spelling corrections
- Using an unaltered excerpt in your work, e.g. a citation

SA, Share alike
If you adapt a work with a SA license by changing it or basing a new work on it, you will have to share your ‘adaptation’ under the same license as the SA licensed work you’ve based it on. More information on this can be found at Creativecommons.org under ‘compatible licenses’.
Mixing differently licensed works
Take care that ‘mixing’ (or blending) works together that have different Creative Commons licenses may not always be allowed. You can read more about mixing and compiling works under ‘Reusing CC works’.