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Creative Commons

The Science Museum seeks to enable reuse of images of collection objects and other content to increase reach and promote the collection. We aim to achieve this through adoption of Creative Commons content licenses that enable reuse by audiences.

Creative Commons licences do not apply to all the content on our websites: please see the website terms and conditions. Creative Commons licences apply only where indicated.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) 

Where indicated, the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence applies to images, learning resources and other content.

This licence allows you to:

  • BY (Attribution): Copy, distribute, display and perform our copyrighted work—and derivative works based upon it—but only if you give us credit in the way we request.
  • NC (NonCommercial): Copy, distribute, display, and perform our work—and derivative works based upon it—but for non-commercial purposes only.
  • SA (ShareAlike): Distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs our work.

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0)

Where indicated the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0) applies to 'open access' content such as the Science Museum Group Journal.

This licence allows you to:

  • BY (Attribution): Copy, distribute, display and perform our copyrighted work—and derivative works based upon it—but only if you give us credit in the way we request.

Creative Commons Zero (CC0)

Where indicated, the Creative Commons Zero (CC0)—a public domain attribution—applies to datasets such as the collection metadata.

This licence allows you to use the content in any way you wish.

Attribution

When you reuse content under a Creative Commons licence that requests attribution we ask that you include the following text in your attribution:

  • Title of the content
  • Author or creator of the content
  • Date of the content
  • Name of the copyright holder
  • Details of the Creative Commons licence under which the content is reused
  • Link to the page on our website from which the image was taken, or webpage address if a printed publication
  • Details of any alterations to the content (cropping of images, extracted quotations etc.)

Non-commercial

Creative Commons defines commercial use as 'reproducing a work in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation'.

The Science Museum considers the following to be commercial (this list is not exhaustive):

  • use in a product or service that is commercial, such as books and journals;
  • use that promotes a product or service that is commercial;
  • use by charities, including the trading arms of charities;
  • free-entry events (including lectures) that promote a product of services.

The Science Museum considers the following to be non-commercial (this list is not exhaustive):

  • use in websites that are personal, academic or research oriented and not promoting or undertaking any commercial activity;
  • use on personal social media accounts, provided the individual is not promoting themselves commercially;
  • free-entry events (including lectures) that are primarily educational, including promotional material for such events;
  • educational and classroom use;
  • use in a public space so long as the use is not promoting a product or service.

For all commercial usage, contact Science and Society Picture Library.

Please also see our Privacy and Cookies and Website Terms and Conditions.