Event Details

Creative Commons will be attending RightsCon 2026 to present the session “Collective Action for the Commons: Safeguarding Open Knowledge in AI.”

CC signals is a proposed framework that helps content stewards express how they want their works used in AI training, emphasizing reciprocity, recognition, and sustainability. By capturing widely-held sentiment across the commons, CC signals aims to preserve open knowledge while encouraging responsible AI behavior without limiting innovation.

Social norms are arguably the single most important aspect of human governance. They shape how we behave, belong, and make decisions. Norms can be powerful, but only through collective action. Individual creators or collections of content cannot influence AI behavior in isolation; a single preference is inconsequential. Power comes from coordination and solidarity. By converging on shared preferences across sectors, communities, and geographies, we gain leverage to influence AI policy, practice, and the future of the commons.

This session will invite participants to explore legal, technical, and social challenges, test early ideas, and co-design practical applications of CC signals. Participants will discuss how collective action can strengthen the commons, safeguard open knowledge, and ensure equitable AI systems.

The session will also highlight pathways to continue engagement post-RightsCon, from piloting CC signals to joining ongoing global consultations and workshops. Together, participants will help shape a framework that balances innovation with fairness, amplifies creator voices, and preserves the digital commons.

Collectively, we can demand a different way: one that aligns AI with human values and sustains a global culture of openness.

We want to learn from participants how a global coalition of creators, technologists, policymakers, and civil society can collectively shape the responsible use of human-created content in AI. Specifically, we will explore: How can coordination amplify community voices and influence AI practices at scale? What are the most compelling ways to mobilize creators and communities to participate in a shared campaign demanding ethical, transparent, and fair AI systems?

Through this session, facilitators will surface challenges, opportunities, and actionable strategies for collective action, helping us refine CC signals and inform a broader global movement to preserve openness, reciprocity, and fairness in AI.