Creative Commons

Creative Commons CC: a global nonprofit empowering people to sustain a thriving commons of shared knowledge & culture.
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Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture. We make it easier for people to share their creative and academic work, as well as to access and build upon the work of others. By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world. In ord

er to achieve our mission, we:

- Provide Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools that give every person and organization in the world a free, simple, and standardized way to grant copyright permissions for creative and academic works; ensure proper attribution; and allow others to copy, distribute, and make use of those works
- Work closely with major institutions to ensure the correct use and implementation of CC licenses and CC-licensed content
- Support the CC Global Network, a community initiative working to increase the volume, breadth, and quality of openly-available knowledge worldwide
- Develop technology like CC Search that makes openly-licensed material easier to discover and use
- Offer the Creative Commons Certificate, an in-depth course for people interested in becoming experts in creating and engaging with openly-licensed works
- Produce CC Summit, an annual event that brings together an international group of educators, artists, technologists, legal experts, and activists to promote the power of open licensing and global access

Over the past year, Creative Commons communities around the world have continued to show what’s possible when people com...
02/17/2026

Over the past year, Creative Commons communities around the world have continued to show what’s possible when people come together around shared values of openness, collaboration, and care. In 2025, we were focused on getting feedback and streamlining how we did things, which prepped us perfectly for the coming year. In 2026, we want to deepen our community engagement, strengthening connections and creating more meaningful ways for everyone to engage.

Read our new blog post for a peek at some of our community plans.

"The Stars Are Us" by for is licensed with CC BY NC SA, remixed by Creative Commons, CC BY NC SA.

The Coalition emerged from an identified need to reduce barriers to access cultural treasures often made inaccessible ...
05/02/2025

The Coalition emerged from an identified need to reduce barriers to access cultural treasures often made inaccessible due to outdated policies, resource limitations, and logistical challenges.

Without openness to cultural heritage, we risk the erosion of cultural diversity, the weakening of dialogue, and the loss of shared narratives that connect us to our past and inform our future.

Here’s where TAROCH comes in—its aim is to encourage UNESCO Member States to draft and adopt a Recommendation (or other standard-setting instrument) promoting open solutions to enhance access to cultural heritage in the public domain.

Learn more here: https://creativecommons.org/about/arts-culture/advocacy/

Image: Designs for Top and Four Sides of a Snuffbox with Scenes depicting the Ascent of a Hot Air Balloon by Anonymous, French, 18th century is marked with CC0 1.0

During a recent webinar titled “Preprints x Journal Publication: A Conversation with Researchers and Creative Commons,” ...
05/01/2025

During a recent webinar titled “Preprints x Journal Publication: A Conversation with Researchers and Creative Commons,” we explored the legal and practical considerations of openly licensing research preprints and publishing updated versions of research later on.

Our discussion included a Q&A session about the connection between preprints, open access, and subscription journals, as well as the critical role of copyright within these areas 👐.

Watch it here 👉 https://zenodo.org/records/15008993

Image: Close-up of Microscope by Pixabay is marked with CC0 1.0

We recently held a webinar titled “Preprints x AI: A Conversation with Researchers and Creative Commons.” During this se...
04/29/2025

We recently held a webinar titled “Preprints x AI: A Conversation with Researchers and Creative Commons.”

During this session, we welcomed researchers, science funders, and representatives from preprint servers to discuss the critical legal and practical implications of openly licensing research preprints amid considerations of generative AI training and use 🧠. As this topic continues to evolve, we addressed many pressing questions and dove into the evolving landscape of AI and copyright.

Watch it here 👉 https://zenodo.org/records/14983671

Watch it here 👉 https://zenodo.org/records/14983671

Image: Science! © 2012 by Quinn Dombrowski is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

CC hosted a Towards Better Sharing of Cultural Heritage workshop virtually in 2022 to unite people from the worlds of op...
04/28/2025

CC hosted a Towards Better Sharing of Cultural Heritage workshop virtually in 2022 to unite people from the worlds of open culture and politics 🙏. This workshop provided a quick overview of the main policy issues affecting the better sharing of cultural heritage and started a conversation around recommendations for policymakers to address such issues.

Watch it here:

On 10 May 2022, Creative Commons hosted our "Towards Better Sharing of Cultural Heritage" workshop, which sought to bring together people from the world of o...

04/25/2025

In order to effectively implement the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) and meet the goals of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda, we need more reuse, sharing, and adaptation of quality OER in the public interest.

So, what is OER? Put simply, they are learning, teaching, and research materials made freely available to the public. To address the world’s challenges, we need to be in it together—that means sharing resources and knowledge.

We’ve created some new assets to not only help you learn more about OER, but to also help governments, organizations, and individuals understand CC, our licenses, and the importance of using CC licenses when implementing the 2019 UNESCO Recommendation on OER. Explore them here: https://creativecommons.org/about/education

FYI: you don’t need to register with CC before obtaining a license for your work. We offer our licenses, code, and tools...
04/21/2025

FYI: you don’t need to register with CC before obtaining a license for your work. We offer our licenses, code, and tools to the public for free and without obligation! 🙌

Your CC license is legally valid as soon as you apply it to any material you have the legal right to license. 💪

Any other pressing questions? Check out our FAQ page: https://creativecommons.org/faq/ -is-creative-commons-and-what-do-you-do

Image: "Sharing" © 2009 by Marcus Johnstone is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

If you’re looking to stay connected to global actions in open education resources, practices, and policies, consider joi...
04/19/2025

If you’re looking to stay connected to global actions in open education resources, practices, and policies, consider joining the CC Open Education Platform! The group is made up of around 1000 members from over 90 countries working together on the following goals:

👥 Build and sustain community.
📈 Increase educational access and equity.
👐 Use policy to open education opportunities for all.

Learn more here:

What is the Open Education Platform? The Creative Commons Open Education Platform is a space for open education advocates and practitioners to identify, plan and coordinate multi-national open education content, practices and policy activities to foster better sharing of knowledge. This platform is....

Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about the future of open and what that looks like, especially in this uncertain age of...
04/17/2025

Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about the future of open and what that looks like, especially in this uncertain age of AI⚡️. How can we best protect and defend the commons?

Last month, we hosted an Open House for an Open Future event focusing on the future of open, AI, the role of CC licenses, and more. During this gathering, we had the opportunity to discuss these pressing topics with other thought leaders in the open movement.

Read about our time at SXSW in a new blog post. We’d like to sincerely thank our event sponsor, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for making this event and these conversations possible.

SXSW by Creative Commons is licensed under CC BY 4.0 If you’ve been following along on the blog this year, you’ll know that we’ve been thinking a lot about the future of open, particularly in this age of AI. With our 2025-2028 strategy to guide us, we’ve been louder about a renewed call for ...

04/17/2025

When cultural heritage remains locked behind digital barriers: research stagnates, artistic innovation suffers, and public understanding of the past is limited. According to UNESCO, “a world without culture is a world without a future.”

Learn more about openness and what it does for cultural heritage and the world at large by downloading our report, Don’t Be a Dinosaur or The Benefits of Open Culture 🌍:

Starting your journey into the world of open? 🤗 In 2023, we held an introductory webinar covering the fundamentals of CC...
04/11/2025

Starting your journey into the world of open? 🤗 In 2023, we held an introductory webinar covering the fundamentals of CC, exploring open culture concepts, explaining licensing options, and addressing questions from attendees.

Watch it here:

Why is open access important for cultural heritage institutions? The mission of many of these kinds of organizations is to share culture and knowledge - and ...

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