Creative Commons (CC) is the forefront non-profit organization promoting [free culture](free_culture.md), i.e. basically relaxation of ["intellectual property"](intellectual_property.md) (such as [copyright](copyright.md)) in [art](art.md). One of the most important contributions of the organization are the widely used Creative Commons [licenses](license.md) which artists may use to make their works more legally free and even put them to the [public domain](public_domain.md).
Creative commons [licenses](license.md)/waivers form a **[spectrum](spectrum.md)** spanning from complete freedom (CC0, [public domain](public_domain.md), no conditions on use) to complete [fascism](fascism.md) (prohibiting basically everything except for non-commercial sharing). This means that **NOT all Creative Commons licenses are [free cultural](free_culture.md) licenses** -- this is acknowledged by Creative Commons and has been intended. Keep in mind that as a good human you mustn't ever use licenses with [NC](nc.md) (non-commercial use only) or [ND](nd.md) (no derivatives allowed) clauses, these make your work non-free and therefore unusable.
| [Creative Commons Zero](cc0.md) | CC0 | yes :) |yes :) |yes :) |yes :) | no :) |no need :) | no :) |[public domain](public_domain.md), copyright [waiver](waiver.md), no restrictions, most freedom, best, sadly doesn't waive patents and trademraks|
| Creative Commons Attribution | CC BY | yes :) |yes :) |yes :) |yes :) | no :) |forced :( | no :) | no restrictions except for requiring attribution to authors |
| Creative Commons Sharealike | CC SA | yes :) |yes :) |yes :) |yes :) | yes :/ |no need :) | no :) | retired, secret license, no longer recommended by CC, pure copyleft/sharealike without forced attribution |
| Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike | CC BY-SA | yes :) |yes :) |yes :) |yes :) | yes :/ |forced :( | no :) | requires attribution to authors and copyleft (sharing under same terms) |
| Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial | CC BY-NC | NO! :((( |yes but|yes but|yes but| yes :/ |forced :( | yes :( | [proprietary](proprietary.md) fascist license prohibiting commercial use, DO NOT USE |
| Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs | CC BY-ND | NO! :((( |yes but|yes but|NO! :( | yes :/ |forced :( | no but | [proprietary](proprietary.md) fascist license prohibiting modifications, DO NOT USE |
|Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivs| CC BY-NC-ND| NO! :((( |yes but|yes but|NO! :( | yes :/ |forced :( | yes :( | [proprietary](proprietary.md) fascist license prohibiting commercial use and even modifications, DO NOT USE |
| none (all rights reserved) | | NO! :((( |NO! :( |NO! :( |NO! :( |FUCK YOU|FUCK YOU | FUCK YOU | [proprietary](proprietary.md) fascist option, prohibits everything, DO NOT USE |
