CC’s new guidelines aim to encourage users to refer to host cultural heritage institutions when using public domain materials. Rooted in the Behavioural Insights Team’s EAST Model, they offer institutions practical design ideas to nudge users into referring back to them.

A screenshot of the CC BY traditional and simplified Chinese translation. Licensed CC BY

Creative Commons is doubly excited to announce the publication of two official Chinese language translations of version 4.0 of our license suite: Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. These translations will enable approximately 1.2 billion persons (more than 15% of the world’s population) to understand our licenses in their first language. We could not be more…

To date, the CC Certificate has only been available in English. However, thanks to the incredible efforts of CC Global Network members, the CC Certificate course content (e.g., readings, articles, etc.) is being translated into multiple languages. In particular, we are proud to highlight the work of CC Network members in Italy and Saudi Arabia.…

When governments choose to use Creative Commons licenses to preserve and share cultural knowledge, like Indigenous languages, it illustrates how our licenses can help create a more accessible and equitable world.  Recently, CC India’s Global Network Representative (GNC) Subhashish Panigrahi brought to our attention that the Indian state of Odisha licensed 21 dictionaries—in all 21…

A key principle of the open movement is that the power of information relies on its accessibility. As researcher and activist Bushra Ebadi expressed to us recently, “Access to information is intrinsically tied to the right to know and the right to exist.”    We often receive stories from around the world illustrating how Creative Commons…

Cover page of the CC Style Guide 2019. Photographer: Heather Hazzan; Wardrobe: Ronald Burton; Props: Campbell Pearson; Hair: Hide Suzuki; Makeup: Deanna Melluso at See Management. Shot on location at One Medical. CC BY

Crafting and maintaining a consistent style is essential to establishing and promoting an organization’s brand.  As with any organization, Creative Commons’ (CC) brand should help CC build trust with its stakeholders and the broader open movement, as well as maintain and grow CC’s reputation, legitimacy, and leadership in the Global Commons. With that in mind,…

Today, SELF magazine released a collection of new CC-licensed photos created to increase awareness about vaccines and promote accurate information about immunizations. The project, developed in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics, includes several dozen high-quality images made by photographer Heather Hazzan. These photos are available to the public as a free alternative to…

In October we wrote that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is considering an open licensing requirement for direct competitive grant programs. If adopted, educational resources created with ED grant funds will be openly licensed for the public to freely use, share, and build upon. The Department of Education has been running a comment period in which interested parties can provide…

Hubble Space Telescope and Earth Limb / NASA on The Commons / No known copyright restrictions If you could send a folder with 50 MB of content to every human on Earth, what would you include? This weekend Creative Commons volunteers and Outernet are hosting a CC Content Edit-a-thon to populate the first Outernet library…

Today the Ford Foundation announced an open licensing policy for all of their grant-funded projects and research. The new arrangement came into effect February 1, 2015 and covers most grant-funded work, as well as the outputs of consultants. The Ford Foundation has chosen to adopt the CC BY 4.0 license as the default for these…