Attribution is a requirement included in all Creative Commons Licenses and can be used as a stand alone requirement or mixed with the other three license elements to create a variety of different re-use restrictions.
This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. In addition to complying with the terms of the license providing attribution avoids any potential issues with plagiarism and it is important to cite you sources even when using materials not using a creative commons license.
Materials with the CC-BY License will have the following Human readable logo. .
Below is an image from the a party celebrating the 10th anniversary of founding of Creative Commons. The standard attribution for the image can be found below the image. With the elements of that attribution displayed to the right of the photo.
Title: “Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco”
Author: “tvol” – linked to his profile page
Source: “Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” – linked to original Flickr page
License: “CC BY 2.0” – linked to license deed
In the 4.0 licenses, a user must remove attribution from a work at the creator's request to the extent it is reasonably practicable to do so. This is true whether the work is modified or unmodified. (See Section 3(a)(3) of CC 4.0 legal codes.)
All creative commons licenses, after 1.0 require attribution. However, legislation in many countries gives authors the right to control the use of their name in association with their works. Therefore, CC licenses require licensees to remove attribution to the creator at his or her request, where it would otherwise be required to include it. In 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0, credit must be removed from adaptations and collections, to the extent practicable, at the creator’s request. In 4.0, the creator may also request removal of credit from the unmodified work.
