As mentioned in section 4.1, the best practice for attribution is applying the TASL approach.
- T = Title
- A = Author
- S = Source
- L = License
The attribution requirements in the CC licenses are purposely designed to be fairly flexible in order to account for the many ways content is used. A filmmaker will have different options for giving credit than a scientist publishing an academic paper. Explore the CC wiki page “Best Practices for Attribution” (licensed CC BY 4.0 and available at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practices_for_attribution). Among the options listed, think about how you would prefer to be attributed for your own work.
Creative Commons is also exploring ways to automate attribution. Explore this feature by going to the CC search tool (https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org) and searching for “golden retrievers.” Then, click on a couple of different photos to see how attribution is given, and experiment with the “copy credit as text” and “copy credit as HTML” functions.
The other main consideration when copying works (as opposed to remixing, which will be covered in the next section of this chapter) is the NonCommercial restriction. If the work you are using is published with one of the three CC licenses that includes the NC element, then you need to make sure that you’re not using it for a commercial purpose.
Remember, you can always reach out to the creator if you want to request extra permission beyond what the license allows.
Final Remarks
Attribution is arguably the single most important aspect of Creative Commons licensing. Think about why you want credit for your own work, even when it may not be legally required. What value does attribution provide to authors, and to the public who comes across the work online?
