Copyright Licenses

Below is a brief description of each of the six licenses available for copyrighting material:

1) Attribution SharedAlike

This license allows other people to edit the original work, as long as they credit the original author and have exactly the same license terms. It gives the author greater power in creating the exact licensing terms they would like, yet allowing changes to be made which could very well benefit the document.
Wikipedia uses this type of license and clearly helps to convey an abundance of information from many different sources around the world.

2) Attribution Non-Commerical
The license allows other people to edit the original work, however they must always acknowledge the author and are unavailable for commercial purposes. However, unlike the SharedAlike terms, the license does not have to be exactly the same or match the terms of the original work.

3) Attribution Non-Commerical No Derivs
This license allows work to be downloaded only with no room for modifications or sharing without crediting the original author. It is therefore the most restrictive of all six licenses. These such documents cannot be used for commercial purposes or edited in any way.

4) Attribution Non-Commerical ShareAlike
This license has the advantage of the work being modifiable but not for commercial purposes. Other people can change or build on the piece of work but it must be under the same terms of the original author and credit them when submitting the new modification.

5) Attribution No-Derivs
This license allows for the work to be freely distributed and used commercially. It must however, be exchanged in it's full original form (unchanged) and credit the author.

6) Attribution
This license is the most lenient and accommodating of all licenses. It can be used for commercially, can be modified providing the original author is credited, and added to. The attribution license is recommended for work that should be shared and made known to a wide range of people. Licensed pieces of work are a good example of this.