Creative Commons Namespace for RSS
Editor's Note: This is version 1.11 of this document, published Oct. 18, 2006.
1. Introduction
The Creative Commons namespace enables a syndication feed in RSS 2.0 format to indicate the copyright license that applies to an entire feed or specific items in the feed.
Although the namespace takes its name from the Creative Commons set of content-sharing licenses, it potentially may be used with other licenses.
Creative Commons offers 11 licenses that could be applied to the content of an RSS feed.
This namespace requires the "http://backend.userland.com/creativeCommonsRssModule" declaration in the RSS element.
<rss xmlns:creativeCommons="http://backend.userland.com/creativeCommonsRssModule">
A sample feed demonstrates how to incorporate elements from this namespace in an RSS 2.0 feed.
2. Conventions
In this documentation, the key words may, must, must not, optional, recommended, required, shall, shall not, should and should not are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
3. Channel License
The license element, when present in a channel, indicates that the feed's content has been made available under a copyright license (optional).
The element's value must be a URL that identifies the license.
<creativeCommons:license>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/</creativeCommons:license>
A channel may contain more than one license element to indicate its availability under additional licenses.
4. Item License
The license element, when present in an item, indicates the item's availability under a copyright license (optional).
The element's value must be a URL that identifies the license.
<creativeCommons:license>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/</creativeCommons:license>
An item may contain more than one license element to indicate its availability under additional licenses.
The item's license takes precedence over the feed's license when both are present.
5. License
Copyright 2006 RSS Advisory Board. Redistribution and reuse of this document is permitted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
6. Credits
The Creative Commons Namespace for RSS was created by Dave Winer. Comments and corrections regarding this document are encouraged on the RSS-Public mailing list.
