Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit that offers free licenses for content creators to use when making their work available for the public to share and reuse. CC licenses enable creators to grant permission for others to use their works under specific conditions.
One benefit for students is that all CC licenses allow works to be used for educational purposes. Therefore, students can freely copy and share a work licensed under a CC license without having to ask for permission from the creator.
Creative Commons licenses provide a standardized way for content creators to give the public permission and rights to use their works freely and legally under copyright law.
CC licenses allow creators to clearly define how they want others to use their work. You would only need to seek the content creator’s permission if you want to use the work in a way that is not permitted by the CC license.
CC License Freedom Scale Chart by Romaine is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)