How the Creative Commons license protects your simming works

You may have noticed at the bottom of each page on our main site, as well as on the wiki, the Creative Commons license image. It looks like this:

Some people have recently asked about what Creative Commons licensing is and what it covers, specifically in regards to UFOP: Starbase 118 and our creations.
Most simply, Creative Commons is a type of licensing for creative works. What makes Creative Commons both unique and special is that it’s written in such a way as to be extremely simply to understand. Take a look.
Like anything you create anywhere, your works are protected by copyright law. But the Creative Commons license is an agreement – between you, the content creator, and UFOP: SB118 – which says that we have permission to use your works in perpetuity as long as we attribute the work to you, don’t use it for commercial purposes, and “share alike” (which means that we have to allow others to use the work as long as they attribute back as well).
This license protects you, the content creator, by ensuring your simming works are only used if they’re attributed back to you. It also protects us, UFOP: SB118, by ensuring that we have your permission to use your work.
Regardless of the license, you – as the content creator – can still use your work in whatever ways you want. For example, let’s say that you wanted to write a novel about your character in a generic, non-Star Trek setting and sell the novel on Amazon. Because you’re the content creator, you own the character completely and can do that without having to attribute UFOP: SB118.
But let’s say that you wanted to write a novel about your character and have him or her live on Starbase 118 – in that case, you’d have to attribute UFOP: SB118, our community.
The same rules apply if you ever want to use your character in another game: You must attribute UFOP: SB118, with a link, if you mention in your character profile any information that was created here in UFOP: SB118 that you, alone, did not create.
We hope this explanation clarifies the ways in which the Creative Commons license protects you and your works, as well as UFOP: SB118.
If you have questions about the license, please feel free to post them on the forums.