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CC BY (Attribution)

CC BY is the most permissive Creative Commons license that still requires attribution. It's the Creative Commons equivalent of the MIT license—do what you want, just give credit.

At a Glance

Attribute Value
SPDX Identifier CC-BY-4.0
Type Permissive
Free Culture Yes
Attribution Required Yes

What It Allows

  • Commercial use
  • Modification and adaptation
  • Distribution
  • Private use
  • Any format or medium
  • Any purpose

What It Requires

  • Give appropriate credit
  • Provide a link to the license
  • Indicate if changes were made
  • Not imply endorsement

What It Prohibits

  • Applying additional legal restrictions
  • Implying creator endorsement

Attribution in Practice

CC BY requires you to provide:

  1. Credit to the creator (and others designated)
  2. Copyright notice if provided
  3. License notice with link
  4. Disclaimer notice if provided
  5. Indication of modifications if you changed it

Good Attribution Example

"Climate Data Visualization" by Jane Smith, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Modified: colors adjusted for accessibility. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Minimal Attribution

At minimum: creator name + license with link. More is better, but this satisfies the requirement.

Derivatives Can Use Any License

Unlike CC BY-SA, derivatives of CC BY works can use any license—including proprietary or more restrictive licenses. The only requirement is attribution to the original.

CC BY Work ──► Your Adaptation ──► Any License (with attribution)

CC BY vs MIT

Both are permissive with attribution, but:

Aspect CC BY MIT
Designed for Creative works Software
Patent provisions None None
Modification notice Required Not required
Non-endorsement Explicit Implicit
No warranty clause Implicit Explicit

Common Uses

Academic Publishing

Many open access journals require or encourage CC BY. This allows:

  • Citation and quotation
  • Reproduction in textbooks
  • Translation
  • Commercial republication

The Open Access movement strongly favors CC BY because it removes barriers to knowledge sharing.

Documentation

Technical documentation often uses CC BY:

  • Readers can adapt for their needs
  • Translations are permitted
  • Commercial training materials can include it
  • Attribution provides credit to authors

Research Data

Data is often released under CC BY (or CC0). Scientists can:

  • Combine datasets
  • Use in commercial research
  • Publish derived analyses
  • Build on others' work

Data and Databases

CC 4.0 licenses explicitly cover database rights (sui generis rights in some jurisdictions). Earlier versions didn't, so always use 4.0 for data.

When to Choose CC BY

CC BY is appropriate when:

  • You want maximum reuse
  • Credit is important to you
  • You don't mind commercial use
  • You want your work to spread widely

When to Choose Something Else

  • Want derivatives to stay open → CC BY-SA
  • Want to prevent commercial use → CC BY-NC
  • Don't want modifications → CC BY-ND
  • Don't need attribution → CC0

Notable Works Under CC BY

  • Wikipedia (since 2009)
  • Many open access journal articles
  • OpenStreetMap (since 2012)
  • Khan Academy content
  • MIT OpenCourseWare