CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION

Creative Commons (CC) is a nonprofit organization and global community dedicated to supporting an open and accessible Internet that is enriched with free knowledge and resources for people around the world to use, share, and cultivate. Creative Commons creates and maintains the licenses that are the standard for enabling sharing and remix. There is no larger compendium of shared human knowledge and creativity than the Commons, including over 1.4 billion digital works available under CC tools, and in the public domain. When artists, educators, scientists, governments, and other creators share work with a CC license, they become contributors to a global Commons containing hundreds of millions of openly-licensed resources available for use by anyone, globally. In addition to advancing licenses and legal tools, program areas include discovery and collaboration tools, policy and advocacy, community building, and education.

Creative Commons’ overarching strategy is to foster a vibrant, usable, and collaborative global commons, powered by an engaged community of creators, curators, and users of content, knowledge, and data. We pursue the fulfillment of this strategy by focusing in three intermediate outcome areas: discovery, collaboration, and advocacy.

Creative Commons’ 2016-2020 Organizational Strategy can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/ideas/

Creative Commons’ CC Search vision, strategy, and roadmap are available at https://creativecommons.org/2019/03/19/cc-search/

Creative Commons’ Global Network Strategy process and the ongoing outcomes of this work can be followed at https://network.creativecommons.org/ ; aggregated elements of the strategy process and information about participating in Platforms of the Global Network are available at https://creativecommons.org/2018/07/26/flipping-the-switch-on-a-revitalized-cc-network/ and https://creativecommons.org/2019/01/10/global-network-2/

Updates and new course releases regarding Creative Commons’ CC Certificate educational program and OER materials are available at https://certificates.creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons is powered by a staff of two dozen talented individuals — https://creativecommons.org/about/team/ — with deep expertise and diverse skills, established networks, and a passion for cultivating openness in practice, culture, and community. Our staff, Global Network of peers and partners, and Board of Directors, comprised of notable leaders and openness advocates in the legal and technology sectors, possess the skills, relationships, and standing to contribute to all conversations about the future of openly-licensed content.

Creative Commons emphasizes strategic communications and transparency measures to increase awareness, associate brand with mission, and improve engagement with our various user groups and supporters. Our core assets — a license suite and related tools — are well documented in an open environment that encourages collaboration and input from external contributors. The latest, license version 4.0, was developed in a multi-year collaborative process with contributors from across the globe.

The name “Creative Commons" is synonymous with legal sharing and signals that an organization or creator is committed to openness and enriching the wealth of art, research, culture, and knowledge freely available to the world. The organization has followed a steep growth trajectory since its launch nearly two decades ago. It is currently regarded as the global leader in open licensing. Creative Commons' tools are accepted as the gold standard for openly licensing content in many academic, public policy, cultural, and scientific arenas. Creative Commons has created game-changing licensing tools that have inspired and supported a movement of individual creators, advocates, institutions, and governments toward openness and full access to art, knowledge, and science.