What role do books play in training AI models, and how might digitized books be made widely accessible for the purposes of training AI? What dataset of books could be constructed and under what circumstances? A new paper investigates the concept of a responsibly designed, broadly accessible dataset of digitized books to be used in training AI models.

“The Artist's Father, Reading a Newspaper” by Albert Engström - 1892 - Nationalmuseum Sweden, Sweden - Public Domain.

Last month, the European Parliament and Council gave the green light to an important piece of legislation: the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). In this blog post, we look at the aims of the EMFA and why it matters for Creative Commons (CC) and everyone’s right to access trustworthy information.

“Artificial Intelligence” by Oksana Latysheva from NounProject.com is licensed via CC BY 3.0.

CC joins civil society letter urging U.S. to support openness and transparency in AI.

Close-up of the Brussels' Atomium on a clear day By Geertivp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Close-up_of_the_Brussels%27_Atomium_on_a_clear_day_(cropped).jpg

Last week, Creative Commons took part in the International Public Domain Day celebration at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Two engaging roundtables were hosted, delving into copyright issues concerning the public domain and its future. The event united advocates for open access to cultural heritage, featuring presentations on topics like the monetization and decolonization of the public domain, as well as updates on the Europeana Public Domain Charter. Creative Commons introduced new guidelines published in February aimed at encouraging users to reference institutions when utilizing public domain cultural heritage materials.

“Irises, 1889” by Vincent van Gogh, The J. Paul Getty Museum is dedicated to the public domain by CC0.

The J. Paul Getty Museum just released more than 88 thousand works under Creative Commons Zero (CCØ), putting the digital images of items from its impressive collection squarely and unequivocally into the public domain. This is in line with our advocacy efforts at Creative Commons (CC): digital reproductions of public domain material must remain in the public domain. In other words, no new copyright should arise over the creation of a digitized “twin.”

“Barrels of Money” by Victor Dubreuil. 1890s. Brandywine Museum of Art , Public Domain.

In February, we hosted a webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Maximizing the Value(s) of Open Access in Cultural Heritage Institutions.” In this blog post, we summarize the key points raised in the discussion and share a link to the recording.

Today, Creative Commons (CC) joins the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) as a new member. The DPGA is a multi-stakeholder initiative with a mission to accelerate the attainment of the sustainable development goals in low- and middle-income countries by facilitating the discovery, development, use of, and investment in digital public goods (DPGs).

"We Shine Together" by Ana Lopes, here, cropped, is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Greetings to the CC Community! A lot of exciting and critical work awaits us in 2024. While I steer Creative Commons as interim CEO, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share details of our key priorities in the upcoming year.