Creative Commons License

The comments on the Online Commentary are published under a Creative-Commons license. 

What is Creative-Commons?

Creative-Commons is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 in the United States. It provides various standard contracts, called "licenses". These "licenses" allow an author to easily grant rights to use his or her works to the general public. 

Creative Commons licenses

Creative Commons licenses work as a modular system. The meaning of the four possible building blocks is visualized by symbols:

Symbol Abbreviation Name Meaning

  • by (Attribution):The name of the author must be mentioned.

  • nc (Non-commercial): The work may not be used for commercial purposes.

  • nd (No Derivatives): The work may not be modified.

  • sa (Share Alike): The work must be redistributed under the same license after modifications.

By combining these four symbols, it is possible to construct six different "standard licenses".

The Creative Commons license is made available in three forms of presentation:

  • In a short version for users: in the form of symbols with abbreviations (see above), with no legal knowledge required. 

  • A long version for lawyers: the legally binding version, the detailed contract.

  • A machine-readable version, which can for example be recognized and read by search engines.

The Online Commentary uses the CC-BY license. This means that the text of the commentary can be used as long as the author's name is mentioned.