- Areas Of Involvement:
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Law
Creative Commons
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What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons (CC) is a global nonprofit dedicated to increasing the amount of creative and academic works available for open sharing. It provides free licensing and public-domain tools so content creators can grant copyright permissions for using their work.
Founded by Lawrence Lessig as Copyright Commons in 1999 and renamed Creative Commons in 2001, CC opened its headquarters at Stanford Law School in May 2002 and issued its first licenses that December. By 2023, there were more than 2.5 billion CC-licensed works.
There are six license types available on the basis of four conditions: Attribution (BY), Share Alike (SA), Noncommercial (NC), and No Derivatives (ND).
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Why was Creative Commons created?
Creative Commons (CC) is a global nonprofit that expands the number of creative and academic works available for open sharing. It was born out of a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which added 20 years to copyright terms.
Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor, assembled a team called Copyright Commons to challenge the act, renaming it Creative Commons in 2001. In 2002, CC issued its first licenses, offering creators a way to grant copyright permissions for using their work.
CC provides free licensing and public-domain tools, like the CC0 public dedication, that allow creators to put their works into the public domain by ceding their copyright.
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What kinds of licenses does Creative Commons offer?
Creative Commons (CC) provides licenses and public-domain tools so content creators can grant copyright permissions for using their work. There are six license types based on four conditions:
- Attribution (BY): Credit the content creator. This is needed for all six license types.
- Share Alike (SA): License adaptations with the same or compatible license.
- Noncommercial (NC): Work cannot be used for commercial purposes or monetary compensation.
- No Derivatives (ND): Derivatives and adaptations are not allowed.
The six license types are CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND. CC also has a public dedication option, CC0, that allows creators to put their works into the public domain by ceding their copyright.
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How do Creative Commons licenses help artists and creators?
Creative Commons (CC) licenses help artists and creators by providing free licensing and public-domain tools, allowing them to grant copyright permissions for the use of their works. These licenses enable content creators to easily manage and share their work while retaining certain rights.
With options like Attribution (BY), Share Alike (SA), Noncommercial (NC), and No Derivatives (ND), creators can specify how their content can be used. CC licenses have a three-layer design consisting of a lawyer-readable legal code, a human-readable Commons Deed, and a machine-readable translation that search engines can use to locate CC-licensed content.
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What is the difference between copyright and a Creative Commons license?
Copyright is an exclusive legal right granted to the creator of original work, protecting its use and distribution. A Creative Commons (CC) license, on the other hand, is a free tool that content creators can use to grant copyright permissions for their work.
Founded in 2001, Creative Commons is a global nonprofit that provides licenses and public domain tools so authors can share their work for open use. These licenses allow creators to specify terms for others to use their work, such as attribution, non-commercial use, and no derivatives. There are six license types and a public dedication option CC0 that allows creators to put their works into the public domain by ceding their copyright.
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How can people find and use works that have a Creative Commons license?
Creative Commons (CC) is a global nonprofit that provides free licensing and public-domain tools so content creators can grant copyright permissions for using their work.
To find CC-licensed works, search engines can locate content using the machine-readable translation in the licenses. Many CC-licensed works, such as images, videos, and music, are hosted on content platforms that include CC license options. Some well-known CC platforms include Wikipedia, YouTube, TED, Flickr, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Sketchfab, and the Internet Archive.
There are six license types available based on four conditions: Attribution (BY), Share Alike (SA), Noncommercial (NC), and No Derivatives (ND).
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Creative Commons (CC), global nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the number of creative and academic works available for open sharing. The organization provides free licensing and public-domain tools that allow content creators to grant copyright permissions for the use of their works. Creative Commons (CC) collaborates with major institutions and governments to run programs in support of its mission.
In 1998 the U.S. Congress enacted the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which added 20 years to the duration of copyright terms. This meant that it would take an additional 20 years, on top of the prior 50-year term, for copyrighted works to enter the public domain. The total copyright term would be the remaining life of the creator plus an additional 70 years. In January 1999 Harvard Law School professor and attorney Lawrence Lessig filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of online publisher Eric Eldred to challenge the act’s constitutionality. To work on the case, Lessig assembled a team including academics and scholars that he called Copyright Commons. Though a judge rejected the group’s arguments in October of that year, the team continued to work together, and in January 2001 it renamed itself Creative Commons.
CC opened its headquarters at Stanford Law School in May 2002 and issued its first set of licenses (version 1.0) that December. In February 2003 Cory Doctorow published Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, the first novel released under a CC license. By December one million works had been officially licensed. Version 2.0 licenses were released in May 2004, by which time close to five million works had been CC-licensed. In 2023 there were more than 2.5 billion CC-licensed works.
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There are six license types available on the basis of four mix-and-match conditions: Attribution (BY), Share Alike (SA), Noncommercial (NC), and No Derivatives (ND).
BY means that, in order to use a work, one must give the content creator proper attribution. This is a requirement for each of the six license types. SA means that, if adapting a work, one must license the adaptation with the same, or a compatible, license. NC means that a work may not be used for purposes involving commercial advantage or monetary compensation. ND means that derivatives and adaptations of a work’s original form are not permitted.
The six license types, along with their conditions, are CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, CC BY-ND, and CC BY-NC-ND. There is also a public dedication option, called CC0, that allows creators to put their works into the public domain by ceding their copyright.
Licenses consist of a three-layer design: a lawyer-readable legal code, a human-readable Commons Deed, and a machine-readable translation that search engines can use to locate CC-licensed content. The majority of CC-licensed works—which include books, articles, educational resources, images, videos, and music—are hosted on content platforms that include CC license options. Some well-known CC platforms include Wikipedia, YouTube, TED, Flickr, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Sketchfab, and the Internet Archive.
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Several universities and colleges provide CC-licensed materials. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) publishes almost all of its course content, including videos, lecture notes, and exams, on MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW). Yale University provides lectures and materials from select courses on Open Yale Courses (OYC). Khan Academy has a video library with learning resources on several core class topics.
Because copyright laws vary by country, Creative Commons’ Global Network has developed CC licenses written for legal systems in numerous different countries and available in many different languages. By 2021, licenses were available in 86 countries.
CC offers many events for its users. For example, the CC Global Summit is an annual event that brings together educators, lawyers, and other professionals to present ideas for creating an open-sharing future. The CC Open Culture Program provides open access to cultural heritage through collaborations with galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. The CC Open Education Program ensures that publicly funded education resources, research, and data are freely available for all.