Creative Commons on DeviantArt - Explained

I'd like to give everyone a little bit of information about the Creative Commons options on DeviantArt. Seeing as we are a Creative Commons group, it's very important for everyone here to understand how these licenses work.

Most people just click the little radio button that says "use a creative commons license" and have done with it, but DeviantArt allows as little sharing as possible and is the very opposite of the intent of Creative Commons. If you leave the default settings on then your work will be very limited and not available in the free culture community. Since here, picking the right license is important, we encourage you to think about what you want to allow and change some of the default options.

The general gist of how the deviantArt creative commons buttons work in relation to your art is this:

- "Use a creative commons license" allows people to copy your work and share it, perhaps online or with their friends offline. With only this option submitted, your work may only be used in the original form without any changes and it may not be used commercially. This means nobody can make deviations based on part of your work and limit the people who can use the work. Please try not to stop at enabling only this one.

- "Allow commercial uses of your work" removes the non-commercial restriction and allows people to use your work in conjunction with any commercial enterprise. Most free culture groups (open source etc) don't allow non-commercial restrictions because it harms collaboration. As a rule of thumb if you don't intend to sell your work later on then you should allow commercial use. We have a gallery especially for this type of license, so if you're willing to allow people to use your deviation for their work projects, we'd like you to have a place in our special gallery and to thank you!

- "Allow modifications of your work" is very important. This means people may make derivative works based on your deviation. Without this ticked, nobody may use your deviation to create their own work. If your art has a very specific artistic integrity which is vital then don't allow derivative works.

- "Yes, as long as others share alike" means that anyone who uses your work must also make their derivative work the exact same Creative Commons License. This is the same type of copyleft license that Open Source uses to ensure that everyone, even businesses that use the work, have to play fair. It guarantees that the work will remain free culture. This is what Wikipedia uses.

Here's an example of a deviation which allows maximum freedom of use:
Screenshot of Creative Commons License on DeviantArt

So please, check your licenses, and share!