# Check the actual reuse permission before placing someone else’s media in your story

Original constructed teaching cases with full context. No actual accounts, rights grants, signed credentials, detector tests, human studies or customers.

Identify the exact work, original source, rights holder and license version, then compare those terms with the use you intend. Preserve required attribution and modification notices and review other relevant rights separately. A public image, a credit line or a CC icon alone does not establish permission for every adaptation, person or destination. Keep an unresolved use on hold.

## Start with the exact work and proposed use

Record the original source reference, work/version, creator or stated attribution party, copyright/license notices and the intended placement. A screenshot copied from a search result may omit the actual license or identify a different version. “Found online” and “the author was credited” are not descriptions of the permission being relied on.

Specify whether you will share the work unchanged, combine it in a collection, translate/adapt it or make only a technical format conversion. Keep the actual destination and purpose in the record. The separate privacy and quote guides remain useful, but neither replaces checking the particular reuse terms for the particular material.

## Read the actual conditions rather than an icon

For example, CC BY 4.0 permits sharing and adaptation, including commercial use, subject to its terms. The deed calls for appropriate credit, a license link and an indication of changes, without implying endorsement; supplied notices also matter. A deed is a summary of the legal license, not itself a full legal determination for your situation.

Other CC conditions can change the outcome. BY-ND 4.0 permits sharing but does not grant distribution of adapted material; it is not a blanket ban on making a private change. BY-SA 4.0 places a same/compatible-license condition on shared adaptations. Merely converting a file format is not by itself a derivative under the ND deed; do not classify every technical export as the same substantive adaptation.

## Keep a complete attribution and change note

Creative Commons recommends the TASL pattern: title when supplied, author/attribution party, source and exact license. Retain supplied copyright, license and disclaimer notices as required by the actual terms. Indicate your modifications and preserve earlier modification indications where required. A bare “via the internet” does not let the next reader trace the work.

Constructed credit record: work “Reporting steps,” fictional exercise rightsholder, original reference recorded privately for the exercise, CC BY 4.0, resized for the proposed layout, earlier modification note retained. This is a teaching record, not evidence of an actual licensed source or a grant covering this blog. For real reuse, substitute the real checked parties, reference and notices.

## Resolve three constructed reuse decisions

R1 — Constructed illustration with a verified-for-the-exercise CC BY 4.0 grant: the proposed use retains attribution, license link and change notices. Decision: record the exact permitted use and separate remaining rights checks. Outcome: a specified teaching decision, not a claim that a real third-party asset was cleared or published.

R2 — Constructed BY-ND 4.0 text: the proposed shared translation is an adaptation in this case. Decision: obtain actual separate permission or choose material whose terms cover the intended adaptation; keep an unconfirmed permission unresolved. Outcome: adding credit does not supply the missing right to distribute that adapted text.

R3 — Constructed CC-marked photograph includes an identifiable person and unresolved intended-use rights. Decision: examine the relevant additional rights or choose another appropriate original asset. Outcome: a copyright license and attribution do not automatically settle privacy, publicity or moral-rights questions.

## Review the whole delivered context

CC deeds explicitly warn that the license may not supply every necessary permission and give no general warranty. An applicable exception or public-domain status can be a separate basis, but this worksheet does not decide whether your use qualifies. Do not turn “publicly visible” or a familiar license badge into a universal clearance certificate.

Inspect the final file, caption and destination together. Attribution can disappear when a graphic is cropped or a slide is detached from its final credits page. Keep the needed notice reasonably connected to the work and retain a review record. Do not imply that the original creator endorses your product, result or claimed customer relationship.

## Save a bounded use or hold decision

The worksheet records work/version, original reference, stated rights holder, actual license/version, proposed changes/use, complete credit, other-rights boundary and exact delivered-file check. It allows a clear hold when a required basis is unknown. Completed correspondence and private source details stay private.

Current CC reuse guidance and the BY, BY-ND and BY-SA 4.0 deeds were read on 1 November 2026. All R-cases are constructed and no actual media permission, legal clearance, account upload or third-party reuse occurred. The license summaries are not a substitute for the actual applicable terms.

## Primary sources

- [Creative Commons: attribution and source references](https://creativecommons.org/reusing-cc-licensed-content/)
- [CC BY 4.0 deed and limitations](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- [CC BY-ND 4.0 deed and format-change distinction](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/)
- [CC BY-SA 4.0 deed and compatible-license reference](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)