By the FRELIP Editorial Team
“You can read it” and “you can reuse it” are not the same thing. Copyright governs reuse by default, and Creative Commons (CC) licences are the tool that lets creators grant clear, standardized permissions in advance. This briefing offers a plain-language guide to CC licensing for educators and researchers: what the core licence elements (attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, no-derivatives) actually permit, how to choose a licence that matches your intent, and how to attribute openly licensed work correctly. We will clear up common misconceptions — including why “freely available online” does not mean “free to reuse” — and connect licensing literacy to the responsible adaptation of OER.