In early 2020, something unusual happened in the academic community. A normally guarded community accustomed to holding their data and research papers close, began to adopt much more open practices. Researchers came in droves to preprint servers to post versions of their research papers – that had not yet been peer reviewed – to make…

“Open Is Beautiful” by Tetiana Korniichuk for Creative Commons and Fine Acts is licensed via CC BY-SA 4.0. As part of our #20CC anniversary, last year we joined forces with Fine Acts to spark a global dialogue on what better sharing looks like in action. Our #BetterSharing collection of illustrations was the result — we…

"Choices" by Derek Bruff, here cropped, licensed via CC BY-NC 2.0.

One of the motivations for founding Creative Commons (CC) was offering more choices for people who wish to share their works openly. Through engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders, we heard frustrations with the “all or nothing” choices they seemed to face with copyright. Instead they wanted to let the public share and reuse…

“Open Educational Resources 2023 Spark Grantees” used with permission from The Michelson 20MM Foundation.

Crossposted with permission from The Michelson 20MM Foundation 23 Aug 2023 blog post. Creative Commons licenses enable much of the open content across the arts, sciences, and academia, including open educational resources (OER). Creative Commons (CC) offers CC Certificate courses, or training on CC licensing and open tools, which have become a key tool for…

Foto: Sammlung Risch-Lau, Vorarlberger Landesbibliothek

The Open Culture program is dedicated to making our resources available to our diverse global audience. Many of our resources are available in multiple languages and we are grateful to our community of volunteers for expanding CC’s linguistic reach. Note that the original English version is the authoritative version on which all unofficial translations are…

“CC Icon Statue” by Creative Commons, generated in part by the DALL-E 2 AI platform. CC dedicates any rights it holds to this image to the public domain via CC0.

Many wonder what role CC licenses, and CC as an organization, can and should play in the future of generative AI. The legal and ethical uncertainty over using copyrighted inputs for training, the uncertainty over the legal status and best practices around works produced by generative AI, and the implications for this technology on the…

The CC icon in white next to “Wikimania 2023 Red” all on top of “Wikimania 2023 Background 1920x1080 - Red.png”, both by Adien Gunarta and Naila Rahmah for Wikimedia Foundation and dedicated to the public domain via CC0 1.0.

CC is thrilled to be partnering with the Wikimedia Foundation to make Wikimania 2023 a reality. The gathering takes place 16–19 August both in Singapore and online. Whether you can make it to Singapore or not, register now to attend, participate, and access recorded sessions. The CC and Wikimedian communities overlap in many ways and…

Detail from “AI Outputs” by CC0.

Are you thinking about how generative artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with creativity? Or how it draws from existing works and collections? Or enables new understandings of culture? Join Creative Commons in NYC on 13 September 2023 for a full-day symposium focused on the intersection of generative artificial intelligence, cultural heritage, and contemporary creativity. This event…

“Volga River. Caspian Sea (7-03-2023)” by Miguel Masegosa is licensed via CC BY 2.0 and contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2023 processed by Sentinel Hub.

At CC we believe that to solve big problems, the knowledge and culture about those problems needs to be open and freely accessible. In line with our Open Climate Campaign, which focuses on opening up climate research, we recently launched the Open Climate Data project, to facilitate better sharing of climate data on a global…

“Sharing Is Growing” by Olga Mrozek for Creative Commons and Fine Acts is licensed via CC BY-SA 4.0.

As part of our #20CC anniversary, last year we joined forces with Fine Acts to spark a global dialogue on what better sharing looks like in action. Our #BetterSharing collection of illustrations was the result — we gathered insights from 12 prominent open advocates around the world and tasked 12 renowned artists who embrace openness…