Copyright and Trademark Standards - The Graphic Design: Reference and Specification - page 4

t r a n s f e r r i n g r i g h t s
Transferring a copyright means granting permission to another to use or publish the work
on a temporary basis. Some common types of transfer rights include the following:

First rights: The work is leased for one use
where it is published for the first time.

Reprint rights: The leaser is given the
right to use or publish the work after it has
appeared elsewhere. Also called serial
rights.

One-time rights: The work is leased for one
use, but there is no guarantee that the buyer
is the first to have published the work.

Promotion rights: The leaser is given the
right to use the work for promotional pur-
poses. This type of agreement is often
tacked onto another rights contract. For
instance, an agreement with a greeting
card company to use an illustration on a
greeting card would include a promotion
rights clause giving the company the right
to use the same illustration in its promo-
tion of the card.

Exclusive rights: The leaser retains the right
to use or publish the work exclusively in
their industry. With an arrangement of this
type, an artistic work that appears in a mag-
azine may not appear in another magazine,
however it could be used on a greeting card.

c r e at i v e c o m m o n s l i s c e n s i n g
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides free copyright licenses to help
creative professionals give others the ability to share, use, or build upon the worked they
have created. A Creative Commons license gives designers the flexibility to share their work
without relegating it to the public domain. The standardized Creative Commons license
allows designers to set up copyright terms based on the conditions of their choice.

What can Creative Commons do for designers?
Designers can use Creative Commons to set up legal notices that permit others to use
their content. For example, a designer can use Creative Commons license to set specific
conditions for use for an infographic designed as a personal project. By using a Creative
Commons license, any person, or organization, can use that specifc infographic, without
permission, as long as the infographic is used in a manner that meets the conditions the
designer outlined in the license.

Creative Commons License Types:
There are six major Creative Commons licenses that can be used when publishing work. At
a minimum each license retains copyright, attributes authorship, applies worldwide and lasts
for the duration of the works copyright.

Attribution (CC-BY)
The most accommodating license type, the Attribution license allows others to distribute,
edit, and improve a designer's original work, even for commercial reasons, as long as the
original designer is credited for the original work.