I’d like to offer a heartfelt thanks to Creative Commons’ longtime General Counsel, Diane Peters, who will be leaving CC at the end of the month to take on new opportunities in 2021. She has served in her staff role at CC since 2008 and as a member of the CC board of directors for many years as its counsel and secretary. Diane has played a key role in nearly every initiative CC has undertaken over the past decade, and the organization will miss her dearly.

Diane led the work to launch the 4.0 versions of CC’s licenses, the CC0 public domain dedication, and CC’s Public Domain Mark—legal tools that have become the gold standard for institutions and individuals wanting to make their copyrighted works freely and openly available for use by anyone in the world. She’s been a critically important figure in supporting and championing CC’s global community, and her leadership of the Open COVID Pledge has been a great demonstration of her innovative thinking. Additionally, her hard work in the GLAM sector has resulted in many major collections of academic materials and cultural works being made openly available to the public—freeing knowledge and culture everywhere for everyone. 

All of us at Creative Commons wish Diane well. We thank her for her service to CC over the past 12 years and are excited for what the future holds for her. The work she’s done at CC has made it much easier for people to share knowledge and creativity with others, and has resulted in a more open and accessible world.