Creative Commons Licenses Explained: Most Open

CC-BY or Creative Commons Attribution is considered the most open of the CC licenses. With this license, the user can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the original, so long as the original creator is given credit, or attribution.

For those who want their work to be built upon, improved, and shared widely, this license is the best bet. It will give that exposure and the ability to improve the scholarly conversation, but will ensure that the original creator's name stays with the content. 

To sum up, this license allows you to share, remix, and use commercially.

For more information, visit CC-BY.

CC-BY-SA or Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike gives the same permissions as the CC-BY (distribute, remix, tweak, build upon) so long as the user credits the original author and also shares whatever they've created under the same license terms. These materials will still be able to be used commercially, but under the license they must always be licensed openly.

For those who want to ensure their work remains open and is never used in a traditionally published resource in the future, this is a good option. It helps to make sure the content is always open.

To sum up, this license allows you to share, remix, and use commercially.

For more information, visit CC-BY-SA.