Government funders are increasingly adopting open licensing policies for copyrightable works and data they create or commission. Over the last few years we’ve been excited to work with philanthropic foundations to implement similar open licensing policies for their grant-funded and in-house created works. Because there is a limit to the funds available to even the largest foundations, most…

Assignments of copyrights photostat copies by mollyali, CC BY-NC 2.0 A few months ago the United States Copyright Office issued a request for comments on an extended collective licensing (ECL) pilot program they are considering for mass digitization projects. The Office thinks that such a program would permit greater access to cultural works by allowing…

The declaration increases interoperability of the commons for games, hardware designs, and more In January we officially opened a public consultation (blog post) on CC BY-SA 4.0 unilateral compatibility with GPLv3, in accordance with our ShareAlike compatibility process and criteria. Following additional months of detailed analysis, discussion and deliberation with the Free Software Foundation and…

Cape Town by Kemal Kestelli on Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0. Earlier this year, Creative Commons and the Open Policy Network hosted the first Institute for Open Leadership (IOL). The IOL is a training and support program to empower new leaders interested in crafting and implementing an open licensing policy within their discipline. We had a…

This is a guest post by Jan Gondol. Pencil by Mari Pi, Public Domain. In the midst of the European migrant crisis, the Czech Republic is showing the power of open educational resources (OER). EDUin, a non-profit organization based in Prague worked with the Czech organization of civic education teachers to address the current migrant…

Files. By Pieter J. Smits, CC BY 3.0 Creative Commons believes that public and foundation funded resources should be openly licensed by default. We have written extensively about the importance of open licensing policies in government, foundations, and have built the Open Policy Network and the Institute for Open Leadership with our open policy partners…

It’s that time of year again. Classes are starting and college students’ jaws are dropping when they see the prices of their textbooks. It’s no big surprise. College textbooks are incredibly expensive — to the tune of $1,200 a year.1 What happens when textbooks cost this much? Students need to take out more loans, take…

Williamsfield video by U.S. Department of Education is licensed CC BY I’m pleased to announce two important updates from the U.S. Department of Education! #1: Williamsfield Community Unified School District embraces OER Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Williamsfield Community Unified School District in Illinois to highlight the progress the rural school district…

We’re happy to present the draft program schedule for the 2015 Creative Commons Global Summit in Seoul. In addition to the keynotes, the program contains a diverse selection of sessions ranging from open business models, 3D printing and design, open education, CC technology, copyright reform advocacy, open access, and community cooperation. The summit includes Creative…

We are thrilled to announce that 1,687 people backed our Kickstarter campaign, which successfully raised $65,420 – over 130% of our funding goal. We’re told by Kickstarter that Creative Commons is now among the top 5% of publishing projects in the history of the crowdfunding platform. All thanks to you, our supporters! What’s next?! Email…