What kinds of things can be licensed under a Creative Commons license?
Creative Commons licenses only apply to materials that are protected by copyright. This means that they can be applied to protect things like articles, text, websites, blogs and other publications; music, artwork video and other audio and visual materials; and also more “utilitarian” items such as software, tables and compilations. As a general rule, copyright is said to protect “expressive, creative works” that are fixed in a tangible medium. The requirement that a work be expressive and/or creative to attract copyright protection means that it has to be the product of someone’s effort and ingenuity. Mere facts and ideas are not protectable. This has particular importance for databases because databases often contain compilations of factual information.
