I'm wondering about the share-alike part of the creative commons license on an image.
I run a website about science, and my question is if the website as a whole must use the same license, or if only the image used (which is share-alike creative commons) in the article must go under that license.
"Share alike" images on a website
I hope that I've understood your question correctly. If you have an image on your site which has been released under a Creative Commons - Share Alike licence, then the licence only applies to that image. I am assuming that other parts of the site are either not copyright in any way, or that you own the copyright. The idea of a share alike licence is that if you somehow adapt and change the basic image (what copyright law calls a derivative work) you don't need permission, but you must apply the same type of licence to your derivative work as applied to the original. So for instance if the original image was released for non-commercial use (signified by nc or 
after the cc symbol) then your image should also be restricted to non-commercial uses. Say you had a members only site which charged a subscription fee in order to view content which included the CC licensed image, that would contravene the terms of the original nc licence. If the terms of the licence were only SA (share alike) then the only requirement for you is to also make your image CC-sa so that others may freely use your image in the same manner. If you are in doubt about the status of the image, try contacting the Creative Commons organisation http://creativecommons.org/
after the cc symbol) then your image should also be restricted to non-commercial uses. Say you had a members only site which charged a subscription fee in order to view content which included the CC licensed image, that would contravene the terms of the original nc licence. If the terms of the licence were only SA (share alike) then the only requirement for you is to also make your image CC-sa so that others may freely use your image in the same manner. If you are in doubt about the status of the image, try contacting the Creative Commons organisation http://creativecommons.org/
Last edited by AndyJ on Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
