The Sampling Licenses

View a 30-second movie of how Sampling works, or check out a comic strip that explains the license in action.

We've also got an explanation of the Sampling Licenses in comic-book format.

Creative Commons first considered offering a Sampling License at the suggestion of collagist People Like Us (a.k.a. Vicki Bennett) and Negativland, the appropriationist art collective that has since served as the public discussion lead during the license drafting process. During this process, and thanks to FGV Law School, we learned that Gilberto Gil, Brazil's Minister of Culture had long been thinking along similar lines. We combined these independent inspirations and, before long, had new licenses to offer to the public.

The Sampling licenses let artists and authors invite other people to use a part of their work and make it new.

For example:

• To take a sample from one musician's song and include it in a new one.
• To use a clip from a film and mix into your own video creation.
• To take a piece of a photograph and put it into a new collage.

Think of it as a way for artists and authors to reward people for transforming their creativity into something it wasn't before.

On certain conditions, that is. There are three flavors of the Sampling license for artists to choose from. Each reflects a slightly different creative style:

	Sampling People can take and transform pieces of your work for any purpose other than advertising, which is prohibited. Copying and distribution of the entire work is also prohibited.
	Sampling Plus People can take and transform pieces of your work for any purpose other than advertising, which is prohibited. Noncommercial copying and distribution (like file-sharing) of the entire work are also allowed. Hence, "plus".
	Noncommercial Sampling Plus People can take and transform pieces of your work for noncommercial purposes only. Noncommercial copying and distribution (like file-sharing) of the entire work are also allowed.

Choose a sampling license for your work