More than a thousand educators, lawyers and tech experts from over 65 countries will come together this week for a global summit to promote open access and better sharing of research and resources.

Creative Commons, the US-based global non-profit organization behind free copyright licenses, is hosting the event to develop solutions for the post-Covid world.

With keynote speakers from the US, UK, Taiwan, Brazil, Kenya and India, the virtual summit will address how to increase access to valuable information, historic images, scientific articles, educational resources, cultural artifacts, and more.

“The CC global summit is bringing together leading activists, advocates, librarians, educators, lawyers, technologists and more from all over the world to promote open access and better sharing.”

Creative Commons, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, has established the goal of putting the tools to share and reshare content in the hands of everyone, everywhere.

It has set a target of raising $15 million USD by the end of next year to free knowledge and culture around the world.

The organization has powered a global movement spanning 86 countries, developing and stewarding legal tools and licenses.

CC licenses remove legal and technical obstacles, so far unlocking nearly 2 billion works around the world across 9 million websites, to enable the global sharing of knowledge and creativity. 

Since 2009, all Wikipedia content, in every language, has been published under CC license.

The virtual summit, which runs until September 24 and has a pay-what-you-can registration policy, will be addressed by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Audrey Tang, the digital minister of Taiwan, and the UK-based CEO of Creative Commons, Catherine Stihler – former MEP for Scotland.

A few words from Catherine Stihler, CEO of Creative Commons:

“The CC global summit is bringing together leading activists, advocates, librarians, educators, lawyers, technologists and more from all over the world to promote open access and better sharing.

The Covid pandemic means that our theme of ‘better sharing’ resonates now more than ever.

Greater access to information means a stronger global community, more innovation, and increased capacity to solve the key challenges the world faces today.

We’re eager to put the tools to share and reshare content in the hands of everyone, everywhere, and our $15m fundraising campaign will ensure that Creative Commons can continue advocating for open access to knowledge for years to come.”

More information on the CC global summit is available here: https://summit.creativecommons.org/