Pick Team Open.Support Creative Commons. On this date in 2002, we launched the first Creative Commons license suite. But it’s what happened next that matters. Thousands of creators started using CC licenses to share their works, everything from film to educational resources to science research. And sometime between then and now, the world changed a…

If you’re not familiar with ccMixter, you should be. It’s an amazing community for downloading and sharing CC-licensed, remixable music and samples. ccMixter has released two albums of holiday music this year; you can buy them or receive them for free for becoming a ccMixter supporter. From the press release: Season of Gratitude was first…

CC in the box of letters / Kristina Alexanderson / CC BY-SA For how popular they are worldwide, it’s striking how rarely CC licenses’ validity has been questioned in court. We consider that a testament to the care with which we craft the licenses: we try to find every possible area of contention or ambiguity…

This post originally appears on the Communia Association blog. Creative Commons is a founding member and active participant in Communia. Last week Thursday the European Commission launched its much anticipated public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules. This consultation is the first visible sign of the second track of the Commission’s attempt…

The following is a guest post by Jessica Smith, National Copyright Officer for the National Copyright Unit of Australia. She ran the Copyright 4 Educators (AUS) course with Delia Browne as part of the School of Open’s second round of facilitated courses in 2013. The School of Open is a community of volunteers focused on…

We’re pleased to announce a new suite of Creative Commons licenses specifically designed for intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). IGOs produce a wide array of valuable information and content, ranging from scholarly and scientific papers to environmental data. Just like other creators who seek wide dissemination of their works to achieve maximal impact, IGOs benefit from using…

Our friends at Musikpiraten e.V. just let us know that the Free! Music! Sampler is now shipping. You might remember this year’s Free! Music! Contest. The winners have been chosen, and the heavily exclamatory compilation album looks gorgeous. You can listen to all the tracks and download the album from Musikpiraten’s Bandcamp page. While you’re…

If you’re scurrying for gifts this year, consider giving open. We’ve put together this list of a few of our favorite openly licensed gifts. What did we miss? Add your favorites to the comments. Sita Sings the Blues merchandise Not only is Sita a great film, but it has some of the most unique and…

Milton Keynes / CC BY I took up residence in Milton Keynes, England, for one week in October as the Linked OER Research Hub Fellow for the School of Open. The School of Open is a community of volunteers from all around the world who are developing free education opportunities on the meaning, application, and…

[written in collaboration with Erine A. Gray, founder, Aunt Bertha and the Open Eligibility Project] Text-based search is powerful. However, as more and more information is digitized and made available on the internet, the effectiveness of text-based search could stand to be supplemented with other technologies. Aunt Bertha, an Austin, TX–based B Corporation, focuses on…