Creative Commons
In the UK creative work is instantly protected under the Copyright Act. This means that if people wish to use that work , for example an image, they would need to contact the artist / author to get permission and find out if there was a fee to pay.
Some creators are happy for some of their work to be used free of cost. Creative Commons is an international non profit organisation that has developed a free to use icensing system that lets creators easily share their work. There are three basic levels to these licences. Much of the information below is copied from creativecommons.org/licences/ - I have changed it a little bit to make it clearer for school children - I have used the word artist but it applies to any creative work. The licences get stricter (lets you do less with the work) as you go down the list
Attribution (CC BY)
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt (change), and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as they credit the artist for the original creation. Recommended for maximum dissemination(sharing) and use of licensed materials.
Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon the work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the artist and license their new creations under the identical terms.This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND)
This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form (it can only be used as you find it, not allowed to make any changes), and credit must be provided to you.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their works on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the artist and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download the artists works and share them with others as long as they credit the artist but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.