You walked through the Creative Commons licensing process, so what now?

It takes more than filling out the form to make sure your file is Creative Commons licensed. Make sure you get the license into the Flash file, so that you can be readily protected.

Get your License Ready

If you haven't already, walk through the Creative Commons Licensing process to figure out what kind of license you need to have. You should arrive at this page:

This page will have several different banners readily available for you to add to your Flash file, as well as the html code that you can include in a website for protection. However, the website will not be traveling with the Flash file most likely, so its best if you put one of these banners straight into the Flash.

Save Your Image

First, you need to get the Creative Commons image of your choice. Right-click > Save Image as... to save the image to your hard drive. Save the file somewhere simple, because you are only going to need to download it temporarily.

Open up your Flash project, and open it to the first scene of the first frame. Including your Creative Commons license at the earliest possible area ensures that people are not going to miss your image.

Make a Button

1) Add a New Layer on top of your previous layers by clicking the Add Layer button. Click that layer once to select it.

2) Click File > Import > Import to Stage...

3) Select your Image file. It should appear on the new layer you created.

4) Click the image once, and press F8. It will prompt you for a name and symbol type. Choose Button, and name it if you like. Press okay.

5) The image should now have a blue border around it, because it has been turned into a symbol. Click the button once with the black arrow tool. Open up the Actions panel, which can be found at Window > Actions.

6) Disable the Script Assist if it is turned on.

7) In the Actions panel, paste the following code:

on(release) {
getURL("codegoeshere","_blank");
}

8) Open up your browser window again, and find the first URL found here.

9) Copy and paste this URL code into your Flash code, where it says "codegoeshere". It should look similar to this:

Make sure that there are one set of quotes around your URL, and that there are one set of quotes around your _blank, which will allow your Creative Commons license to popup in a new window.

You may download an example copy of the finished Flash button.

That's it! You now have a button in your Flash directing people towards your licensing information for your Flash project. If you haven't already, check out the Copyright section for more information on how to protect yourself.