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Story: Intellectual property law

Creative Commons licensing

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Creative Commons licensing

Set up in the US in 2001, Creative Commons’ first copyright licences were released the following year. With the licences came a web application platform that helped users with the copyrighting process. In 2003 there were about 1 million Creative Commons licences in use, and the number grew exponentially. The chart shown here lists the different Creative Commons licences according to whether or not they require attribution, allow use of a work to make money, or permit a work to be changed. So, for example, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand allows use of text and some images under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand licence.

Using this item

Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

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How to cite this page

Susy Frankel, Intellectual property law – Copyright, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/45790/creative-commons-licensing (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Susy Frankel, published 19 June 2014.