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The post CC at the AI Impact Summit: Core Interventions for the Public Interest appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>Last year, our interventions focused on why civil society participation matters, the importance of openness in AI, and the need for local solutions grounded in local contexts. This year, we aim to build on those foundations with a clearer, stronger position on data governance and data sovereignty as prerequisites for a thriving commons. Specifically, we want to talk about building shared governance infrastructure that centers on a democratic and participatory approach, with the ultimate goal of rebalancing power in the ecosystem.
The Commons in the Age of AI
The commons is not an abstract theory or merely a set of values. It is tangible and woven into everyday life. When you read an article not locked behind a paywall, consult Wikipedia, use openly licensed images or music, explore public domain artworks online, or rely on open mapping tools, you are benefiting from the commons.
Today, the commons increasingly takes the form of datasets that train and shape AI systems. These datasets embed human knowledge, creativity, language, and culture. Where this data comes from, who created and stewarded it, and the contexts that give it meaning all matter. These questions are at the heart of data governance and data sovereignty.
For communities in the Global South, these issues are especially urgent. Too often, local knowledge, languages, and cultural expression are extracted, abstracted, and redeployed without meaningful agency, recognition, or benefit flowing back to the people who created them. Addressing AI’s impacts without confronting historical and ongoing asymmetries in power, infrastructure, and representation risks reproducing old patterns of extraction in new technical forms. It is with this in mind that we shape our contribution to AI governance.
CC’s Core Interventions at the AI Impact Summit
As we build our schedule for the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, CC is focused on a set of concrete interventions—areas where our experience, infrastructure, and global community position us to make a distinctive contribution to AI governance in the public interest.
Filling Gaps in Shared Governance Infrastructure
Asserting preferences to communicate how data holders wish their data to be used in AI is at its core a data governance mechanism. Data governance relies on a shared set of rules (formally or informally enforced), as well as a shared vocabulary, both of which require a collective and cohesive approach to be successfully implemented at scale. With decades of experience developing globally recognized, machine-readable licenses, CC is uniquely positioned to help translate expressions of intent into collective, interoperable governance tools that can function at scale.
Participatory and Democratic Approaches to Data Governance
The process of practicing data governance is often as important as the tools used to express it. CC’s licensing frameworks did not emerge from closed rooms; they were shaped through open, global, and deliberative processes involving creators, institutions, and policymakers.
At the Summit, CC will advance the idea that participatory governance is not a luxury but a requirement for legitimacy—especially in AI systems that affect billions of people. We will explore how CC can continue to evolve its own processes to be more democratic and inclusive as we develop frameworks or legal tools that balance the needs of those sharing and those reusing.
Enabling Counter-Power for Creators and Communities
Many current data practices in AI are extractive by design: opaque scraping, unilateral terms of service, and consent frameworks that offer little meaningful choice. CC’s intervention is not to block AI, nor to litigate its development, but to equip creators and data-holding communities with legible, scalable forms of agency.
By supporting collective norms, shared infrastructure, and visible expressions of creator intent, CC can help rebalance power between AI developers and the communities whose work and knowledge underpin these systems. This form of counter-power is especially vital for creators, cultural institutions, and knowledge communities in the Global South, where legal and economic leverage is often limited but cultural contribution is immense.
Choice, Agency, and Human Flourishing
And how do we tackle these issues while keeping the internet human? How do we preserve trust in information? How do we ensure that guardrails for machines do not create undue barriers in access to knowledge or stifle innovation and scientific discovery? In other words, how do we build an AI ecosystem that operates in the public interest, that is standardized when possible and contextual when required?
At its most fundamental level, data governance is about making decisions, about choice. This is where CC has always lived: not in blunt binaries of open versus closed but in enabling choices that empower human creators and the communities they belong to, alongside the machines they choose to use.
We share the view that the promotion of human flourishing should be the overarching principle guiding data governance. We also believe that a flourishing commons is a prerequisite for human flourishing. The knowledge commons made available through the internet is deeply interconnected with shared resources in the physical world, and both require care, stewardship, and collective responsibility.
If you share our belief that AI governance must center the public interest, respect data sovereignty, and strengthen rather than diminish the global commons, we invite you to connect with us at the AI Impact Summit. Let’s work together to build the future of sharing—open, equitable, and grounded in human flourishing.
If you’ll be in Delhi, you can connect with the CC team, represented by Rebecca Ross and Anna Tumadóttir, at the following places:
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- CivicSabha 2.0
- PAIRS India
- OpenMined Community Meetup
- Strengthening Data and AI Collaboratives for Economic Growth and Social Good as part of the main Impact Summit Sessions
- DPGA Events
- Making AI for everyone: The case for personal, local, multilingual AI hosted by Current AI
- Several Project Liberty Institute events
- And many more!
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]]>The post Building the Future in 2026 appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>But as we’ve been discussing over the last year, the conditions under which sharing happens have changed.
Advances in AI and shifts in the technological environment have unsettled long-standing motivations to share openly. Some creators who once shared willingly now question whether openness leads to exploitation. Those who are contractually required to share may feel their contributions are being extracted without recognition or reciprocity. Communities working to preserve culture and ensure representation are often forced into an impossible choice: allow extraction or accept exclusion. At the same time, all of us who depend on access to trustworthy, verified information may find it harder than ever to know what to trust.
If no one shares, the commons has no hope of thriving. The public good that we all benefit from atrophies and eventually disappears. Yet it is equally clear that we cannot simply maintain the status quo. We must negotiate a new balance, one where access to knowledge is protected, communities retain agency, and conditional access may be a necessary countermeasure to unchecked commodification.
These tensions are real, and they demand leadership.
Our Focus in 2026
We recently reflected on our work in 2025—the achievements and the road ahead. That reflection reaffirmed our purpose and sharpened our priorities in this age of AI. In 2026, we’ll continue to work in service of our three strategic goals:
- Strengthen the open infrastructure of sharing: In the long term future, we will know we’ve been successful when a strong and resilient open infrastructure empowers sharing and access in the public interest.
- Defend and advocate for a thriving creative commons: In the long term future, we will know we’ve been successful when a thriving creative commons exists to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
- Center community: In the long term future, we will know we’ve been successful when communities leverage CC’s open infrastructure to share knowledge in the public interest.
Strengthening the Open Infrastructure
The tools we steward, like the CC licenses and public domain tools, and new frameworks we’re developing, like CC signals, do not exist in isolation. They operate within complex legal, technical, and data governance environments. As those environments evolve, so must we.
In 2026, we will engage deeply in defining attribution in the context of AI. Attribution is not a nice-to-have; it is foundational to the commons and the sustainability of our information ecosystem. Creators deserve credit, and users deserve to know where their knowledge is coming from. We will also explore strategies for mandating credit and, where appropriate, compensation, working carefully to minimize any unintended consequences. This means thoroughly understanding the legislative and regulatory environments that impact the use of tools, and meaningfully engaging with stakeholders on what acceptable tradeoffs might be.
As we address these challenges head-on, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the public good. Doing nothing isn’t an option for Creative Commons.
Bringing some agency and nuance back to sharing is what led to the development of CC signals. Like any intervention in a rapidly evolving ecosystem, CC signals and any other AI intervention must be approached with an R&D mindset. We have to test, evaluate, and refine to see what works. We will bring this same mindset to explore if new licenses are warranted, or if we need to consider versioning existing licenses.
This work has to be thoughtful and intentional, even when the world demands speed. The commons moves at human pace and human work is messy. This is a feature, not a flaw, and allows us to counter the need for speed with values-driven design decisions.
Defending a Thriving Creative Commons
For over two decades, CC has been at the forefront of the global movement for access to knowledge. Through policy, advocacy, institutional partnerships, and license adoption, we have helped the commons grow.
This work continues today with even higher stakes. People all over the world participate within the commons daily. It has become so commonplace that we often don’t notice it as something that needs protecting. But it is one of our most valuable human assets—and while it belongs to all of us—it needs guardians, stewards, patrons. Without a healthy commons, knowledge becomes privatized and creativity stalls. In this era of AI, users are one or several steps removed from the original source. We are entering a period of humanity where content is reduced to its lowest common denominator and divorced from context and community. This is where our sector-specific interventions make the greatest impact. By focusing on increasing access to education, science, and culture, we contribute to a thriving creative commons for all of us.
In open science, we will continue to support the rapid, open dissemination of scientific outputs. As research moves beyond traditional publications toward preprints, modular outputs, and digital-first formats, open access infrastructure must evolve alongside it. We will accelerate adoption of CC BY for preprints and deepen our work on modular science with the Continuous Science Foundation, exploring how licensing can function as foundational infrastructure that incentivizes reuse and collaboration.
In open culture, we will be building on the launch of the Open Heritage Statement, with plans to host an event in Paris at UNESCO headquarters to encourage support from UNESCO member states to carry forward this work through formal channels.
For almost five years, our work in open culture has been made possible by support from Arcadia, but this funding concludes later this year. We’re actively seeking grants to continue building on the gains we’ve made and realizing the goal of open heritage becoming the norm, and a shared asset we can all benefit from.
We’ll continue deep engagements in sectors where we’ve historically had great impact with adoption of the CC licenses and driving forth the ideals of openness. Building on expertise and relationships, we’ll help think about what the best tools and frameworks are for sharing and access today and how needs might be changing alongside technology. We’re here to help those who create or steward content make the best possible choices, and we acknowledge that needs will differ by sector and region. Our prototyping work for CC signals will be explored within the education, science, and culture sectors as well.
Centering Community
We’re excited to tackle all of the big, open questions (pun intended!) alongside our community. This year we celebrate our 25th anniversary. We’ll be hosting public conversations with experts, advocates, and dissenters (yes!) and developing resources on the basis of these learnings that are available to anyone who wants to further educate themselves across the full spectrum of our work. We’ll be throwing in some celebrations along the way, too.
Our motto for the year: “If nothing else, credit.”
Historically, sharing and access have reinforced one another. The tools we developed to enable sharing expanded access, and vice versa. In the age of AI, that relationship is under strain—but the core principle remains unchanged.
At Creative Commons, it comes back to choice and credit.
If you choose to share knowledge, you should always be attributed. If you access knowledge, you are entitled to know where your information is coming from.
As Creative Commons enters its 25th year, I’m hopeful we can work together, in community, to advocate for CC’s core values in a changing world. Come find us on Zulip or sign up for our newsletter to hear all about what we’re up to as we celebrate our 25th anniversary.
The post Building the Future in 2026 appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>The post What We Built Together in 2025 appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>The ground beneath the open internet continues to shift. Powerful technologies, driven largely by multibillion-dollar companies, are reshaping how knowledge and creativity are shared online, concentrating power in the hands of a few and testing long-standing assumptions about openness and access. To call this a David vs. Goliath moment would be an understatement. Yet, buoyed by a global community of advocates, creators, and partners, our small but determined team of 20 continues to stand up for the public interest and for access to knowledge worldwide.
This year, our three strategic goals served as anchors in this rapidly evolving environment:
- Strengthen the open infrastructure of sharing: We will know we’ve been successful when a strong and resilient open infrastructure empowers sharing and access in the public interest.
- Defend and advocate for a thriving creative commons: We will know we’ve been successful when a thriving creative commons exists to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
- Center community: We will know we’ve been successful when communities leverage CC’s open infrastructure to share knowledge in the public interest.
As we begin shaping our plans for 2026, we want to pause and reflect on what we’ve accomplished in this first year of our new strategy.
Strengthening the Open Infrastructure of Sharing
Introducing CC Signals
2025 will go down in history as the year we kicked off CC signals.
Building new open infrastructure is complex—and expensive—and these challenges are magnified by the rapid advancement and scale of AI. But in many ways, this is familiar territory. By applying first principles, practical strategies, and lessons learned from decades of advancing the sharing of knowledge and creativity, we are well positioned to help ensure that technological change strengthens, rather than erodes, the commons.
AI systems depend on vast amounts of human-created content, often collected without the knowledge or participation of those who made it. This dynamic has concentrated power and undermined trust in the social contract of the commons. CC signals responds by supporting community agency while preserving Creative Commons’ core commitment to access and openness.
CC signals is a framework that helps creators and custodians of collections of content or data express how they want their works to be used in AI development. Its goal is to uphold reciprocity, recognition, and sustainability in the way human creativity fuels machine learning.
We’re still in the pilot stages of this work. After kicking off a public feedback period in July, we’ve been identifying early adopters who’ll work with us to shape this framework so that it is responsible, adaptable, and grounded in community context. Is that you? If so, please get in touch. We’re also exploring where elements of the broader CC signals framework could be integrated into emerging standards.
The Enduring Value of the CC Licenses and Legal Tools
We are able to do this work because of the reach and enduring relevance of the CC licenses and legal infrastructure of sharing—a digital public good dedicated to the public domain, powering the digital commons, built by you for you.
The CC licenses and legal tools continue to serve as critical infrastructure that must be actively maintained. Copyright law is not uniform around the world, nor are clear global standards emerging that clarify the application of copyright law to AI training.
This year, we released guidance on using CC-licensed works for AI training, which we’ll continue to update and enhance as we conduct further research and track legislative developments globally.
We believe the CC licenses are more important than ever as a tool to increase human-to-human sharing. At the same time, we have a responsibility to navigate the tensions between openness for humans and legitimate machine use (like text and data mining for archiving and research purposes), and unchecked extraction by AI companies, who are taking without giving back to the ecosystem from which they derive value.
Defending a Thriving Creative Commons
While everything we do involves not only defending, but growing, a thriving creative commons, we’ve been fortunate to be able to invest in two critical sectors in 2025: scientific research and cultural heritage.
Open Science
In the field of open science, we’ve focused on two primary interventions:
- Advocating for CC BY as the default licensing option for preprints.
- Advocating for the adoption of CC’s recommendations for better sharing of climate data.
Our work with preprints, initially supported by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, will continue into 2026 with the generous support of the Gates Foundation. The project has run the spectrum from hands-on implementation of licensing options in preprint servers (like openRxiv), to deep dives with funders of scientific research to ensure alignment with their funding policies, to knowledge sharing through Wikipedia. We believe CC BY is the right choice for preprints. The sooner scientific findings are shared and open to interrogation and reuse, the more progress humanity can make.
Barring new support, our work on climate data will wind down at the end of the year, after three years of funding from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. This project began with deep community engagement to develop recommendations for sharing climate data, followed by focused efforts to support partners in implementing them. We’ve worked closely with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and most recently we’ve formalized our consultation with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
If there is a funder out there who wants to continue a targeted intervention for improved, uniform sharing of climate data from global entities, please reach out to us. We believe this work is absolutely critical so that all scientists and researchers have unfettered access to current climate data!
Open Culture
In the field of open culture, we’ve continued to advocate for, and show the need for, a global standard for open cultural heritage at the international level, through a community-driven coalition. This work culminated in the launch of the Open Heritage Statement in October of this year.
Too many barriers still limit access to our shared heritage. Removing these barriers through open solutions is essential not only for cultural rights, but also for scientific discovery and the enrichment of learning materials. This work is a necessary precondition for UNESCO to adopt an international instrument, as they did with the Recommendation on Open Science in 2021 and Recommendation on Open Education Resources in 2019. Our shared commons of education, science, and culture are inextricably linked. We remain grateful to the Arcadia Fund for their multi-year support of our work in open culture.
Across sectors, our approach to growing a thriving commons remains consistent: building shared resources and developing best practices for open sharing, working directly with institutions to adopt open access policies, and emphasizing not only licensing but also provenance of data. Where we get our information has always mattered, but never more than it does today.
Centering Community
We’ve spent 2025 thinking about how best to understand, coordinate, and align existing efforts on community engagement. This includes the governance of CC’s global network, the sector-specific community groups we host in education and culture, and making progress on the virtual engagement spaces we host (join us on Zulip!), all to facilitate connections and knowledge sharing.
All of this work is based on insights and input from you. This year, we brought hundreds of folks together for our CC signals kickoff and the launch of the Open Heritage Statement, and very much look forward to creating spaces for dialogue in 2026 as we enter our 25th anniversary year. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
Outside the legal tools we develop and host and the specific sectors we work in, we continue to keep track of key developments in the policy space and share our work each quarter. We advocate for a balanced copyright system, where noncommercial and research entities can continue to benefit from the commons without restriction. Through making comments at WIPO, to having discussions with the World Economic Forum, and working with UNESCO as a newly minted official NGO partner, at their Mondiacult conference, and in direct engagements, we’re carrying our message far and wide.
2025 Reflections
Many questions remain. We need to dig deeper into the role and function of the CC licenses by legal jurisdiction with regards to text and data mining for AI training purposes. We need to consider if there is a way to imagine conditional access as a necessary and fair part of our modern digital commons. Not to mention overarching questions around what attribution should look like in AI systems.
Like many nonprofits today, securing funding for research and development of new open infrastructure is an ongoing challenge. We also rely on sustained investment to ensure that the CC licenses and legal tools remain stable and reliable as the backbone of the open movement. For CC signals to be a meaningful intervention in a world rapidly shaped by AI, we need to move quickly—but we can only do so at the pace our funding allows.
As we grapple with big open questions and wind down 2025, we’re taking time to consider even more nuanced positioning and actions for our work in the year ahead. If no one shares, we all stand to lose. Onwards we go in driving forth access to knowledge in uncertain times.
We thank each and every one of you for your advocacy and support in the past year. If you have the means to become a sustaining donor through our Open Infrastructure Circle, we’d welcome you with gratitude and high fives.
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]]>The post Where CC Stands on Pay-to-Crawl appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>In response, new approaches are emerging to support creators, publishers, and stewards of content to reclaim agency over how their works are used.
Pay-to-crawl is one approach beginning to come into focus. Pay-to-crawl refers to emerging technical systems used by websites to automate compensation for when their digital content—such as text, images, and structured data—is accessed by machines. We’ve recently published our interpretation and observations of pay-to-crawl systems in this dedicated issue brief.
CC’s Position on Pay-to-Crawl
Implemented responsibly, pay-to-crawl could represent a way for websites to sustain the creation and sharing of their content, and manage substitutive uses, keeping content publicly accessible where it might otherwise not be shared or would disappear behind even more restrictive paywalls.
However, we do have significant reservations.
Pay-to-crawl may represent an appropriate strategy for independent websites seeking to prevent AI crawlers from knocking them offline or to generate supplementary revenue. But elsewhere, pay-to-crawl systems could be cynically exploited by rightsholders to generate excessive profits, at the expense of human access and without necessarily benefiting the original creators.
Pay-to-crawl systems themselves could become new concentrations of power, with the ability to dictate how we experience the web. They could seek to watch and control how content is used in ways that resemble the worst of Digital Rights Management (DRM), turning the web from a medium of sharing and remixing into a tightly monitored content delivery channel.
We’re also concerned that indiscriminate use of pay-to-crawl systems could block off access to content for researchers, nonprofits, cultural heritage institutions, educators, and other actors working in the public interest. Legal rights to access content afforded by exceptions and limitations to copyright law, such as noncommercial research (in the EU) or fair use exemptions (in the US), as well as provisions for translation and accessibility tools, have been carefully negotiated and adjusted over time. These rights could be impeded by the introduction of blunt, poorly designed pay-to-crawl systems.
Proposed Principles for Responsible Pay-to-Crawl
Pay-to-crawl systems are not neutral infrastructure. It’s vital that these systems are built and used in ways that serve the interests of creators and the commons, rather than simply create barriers to the sharing of knowledge and creativity, and benefit the few.
We’re proposing the following set of principles as a way to guide the development of pay-to-crawl systems in alignment with this vision:
- Pay-to-crawl should not become a default setting.
Pay-to-crawl represents a strategy that may work for some websites, and not all websites share the same underlying concerns. Pay-to-crawl systems should not be deployed as an automatic or assumed setting on behalf of websites by others, such as domain hosts, content delivery networks, and other web service providers. - Pay-to-crawl systems should enable choice and nuance, not blanket rules.
Pay-to-crawl systems should enable websites to distinguish between—and set variable controls for—different types of content users (such as commercial AI companies, nonprofits, researchers, or even specific organizations), as well as types and purposes of machine use (such as model training, indexing for search, and inference/retrieval). Systems should not affect direct human browsing and use of content, including by restricting translation or accessibility services. - Pay-to-crawl systems should allow for throttling, not just blocking.
Pay-to-crawl systems should enable websites to manage hosting costs and other impacts of heavy machine traffic without walling off content entirely. For instance, systems could allow websites to throttle traffic driven by ‘agentic browsing’ or ‘inference’ undertaken by large AI models, while permitting other forms of machine access that involve far lower traffic, such as for research or archival. - Pay-to-crawl systems should preserve public interest access and legal rights.
Pay-to-crawl systems should not obstruct access to content for researchers, nonprofits, cultural heritage institutions, educators and other actors working in the public interest. Nor should these systems block lawful uses of content protected by copyright exceptions and limitations, and other legal rights afforded in the public interest. The act of deciding not to abide by a pay-per-crawl system should not, by itself, convert an otherwise lawful use into an illegal act. - Pay-to-crawl systems should use open, interoperable, and standardized components.
Pay-to-crawl systems should not become proprietary chokepoints or gatekeepers. We urge particular caution in the use of proprietary components for authentication and payment that might result in websites getting locked into a particular pay-to-crawl system. - Pay-to-crawl systems should enable collective contributions to the commons.
Pay-to-crawl systems that only enable financial transactions between singular websites and content users risk creating a highly transactional future, where the value of content is atomized. Pay-to-crawl systems should support collective forms of payment, such as to coalitions of creators and publishers, and wider conceptions of what it means to contribute to the digital commons. - Pay-to-crawl systems should avoid surveillance and DRM-like architectures.
Pay-to-crawl systems must not introduce excessive logging, fingerprinting, or behavioral tracking related to the use of content. Systems should minimize data collection to only what is needed to authenticate users and settle payments, rather than seek to follow content downstream or dictate how it can be used.
The Path Forward: Showing Up Where the Future Is Being Decided
We believe now is the moment to engage, to influence, and to infuse pay-to-crawl systems with values that prioritize reciprocity, openness, and the commons.
We welcome feedback and dialogue on the principles outlined here. Your input will help guide our engagement with pay-to-crawl systems and related initiatives moving forward, as well as inform the wider CC community’s understanding of them.
Thank you to Jack Hardinges for his contributions to this post.
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]]>The post Integrating Choices in Open Standards: CC Signals and the RSL Standard appeared first on Creative Commons.
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Strange Bedfellows
That brings us to Really Simple Licensing (RSL). Publicly launched in September 2025, today the RSL Collective releases the RSL 1.0 standard. RSL is an open standard that lets publishers define machine-readable licensing terms for their content, including attribution, pay per crawl, and pay per inference compensation. This is an example of emerging technical systems used by websites to automate compensation for when their digital content—such as text, images, and structured data—is accessed by machines. We’ve been referring to these systems as pay-to-crawl. Think of it as the web’s attempt to answer the question: what tools are needed when bots become the biggest readers? If you are new to the concept, we recently published an issue brief that breaks it down in plain language.
On the surface, Creative Commons and pay-to-crawl systems are strange bedfellows. We have always been a champion of the open web and are concerned about a world where knowledge is harder to access. But we also recognize that responsible, interoperable systems can create leverage where none previously existed. Thoughtfully designed, pay-to-crawl systems may help curb extractive behavior by powerful actors while keeping the web open for everyone else.
Attribution + Compensation
In its early version 1.0 draft, RSL included attribution as one condition for machine access and reuse. From the standard:
Attribution-Only License
The publisher permits free reuse of the content on its site, provided that visible credit and a functional link to the original source are included.
This is important as one example of more choices given to web publishers beyond the binary no access or all access. The inclusion of attribution also mirrors some elements of the proposed CC signal Credit.
You must give appropriate credit based on the method, means, and context of your use.
Attribution + Reciprocity
But as the CC signals framework recognizes, attribution alone is not enough to address the very present power imbalances between AI developers and the commons. We need new tools that ensure the commons thrives and is sustained.
We believe now is the time to act to infuse concepts of reciprocity in standards that are ready for adoption. That’s why we worked with the RSL Collective ahead of the release of version 1.0 to integrate a contribution component to the standard, which is described as:
A good faith monetary or in-kind contribution that supports the development or maintenance of the assets, or the broader content ecosystem.
This is not about turning access into a tollbooth. It’s about acknowledging that extraction without reinvestment leads to collapse. There is a meaningful difference between paying a fee and giving back. One is transactional. The other is about responsibility.
When AI systems derive immense value from the digital commons, contribution isn’t compensation. It’s participation in the social contract that made that value possible in the first place.
Contribution could be in the form of:
- A donation back to a non-profit that stewards the dataset;
- Support for the broader ecosystem that sustains the work;
- Openly licensing the model, or sharing a modified dataset back to the original steward;
- Or other models we haven’t yet imagined.
A Big Step: Many More to Come
The future of the web is being negotiated right now, in standards documents, in product decisions, and in design choices that shape how power flows online. Collaboration is vital if we’re going to achieve a systems-level response to rebalance power in the digital commons.
There’s much more work to be done, particularly in developing what adherence to contribution means in different contexts. But we’re excited about where this is going.
Our door is open. We welcome ideas, critiques, and collaboration. If you have ideas, consider engaging with us on LinkedIn or joining CC’s community platform on Zulip.
Our year-end fundraising campaign is happening right now. While you are here, please consider making a donation to support this work.
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]]>The post A Heartfelt Farewell to Dr. Cable Green appeared first on Creative Commons.
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Education is Hope. By Cable Green at the United Nations. CC BY 4.0
During his tenure at CC, Cable served as Interim CEO, Director of Open Knowledge, and later returned to his original and most enduring passion – leading CC’s global efforts in open education. For many in both the open education sector and the CC community, Cable needs no introduction. His leadership, vision, and passion for access to knowledge have left an indelible mark on CC and the broader open movement.
A tireless advocate for barrier-free access to information, Cable has been a leading voice on open education worldwide – delivering dozens of keynotes, presentations, and workshops that have inspired educators, policymakers, and learners alike. He is equally celebrated as a generous mentor, offering thoughtful feedback and guidance on open education initiatives across the globe. While his contributions are too numerous to list, one thing is certain: Cable’s unwavering belief in the power of openness to solve the world’s greatest challenges has created lasting, real-world impact.
Over the years, Cable has helped craft numerous government, foundation, and university policies that ensure publicly funded educational resources are freely and openly available to all. Among many examples, he supported the U.S. Department of Labor and 800 community colleges in developing open educational resources (OER) through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training program.
Cable also co-created cornerstone CC initiatives including the Open Course Library, CC Certificate, CC Consulting Program, Open Education Platform, Institute for Open Leadership, Open Climate Campaign, Open Climate Data Project, and Open Preprints Project – collectively helping raise over $12 million to advance CC’s mission.
A respected collaborator and coalition builder, Cable has worked with partners worldwide to shape the UNESCO Recommendations on OER and Open Science, the Digital Public Goods Standard, Open Up Resources, and the Network of Open Organizations.
“It has been a genuine honor to work alongside an amazing CC team, our global partners, and the open education community to identify complex problems where education is a critical part of the solution, and then opening that knowledge to help solve the problem. Together we’ve saved students billions of dollars, empowered teachers and learners through open pedagogies, and expanded access to education around the world,” shared Cable.
“On behalf of the entire CC community, I want to thank Cable for his dedication to advancing CC’s mission through the power of open education. I count myself among the many colleagues who have had the privilege of learning from his expertise. It’s not often we can so clearly see the global change one person has helped create, but Cable’s legacy in open education is both tangible and enduring,” says Anna Tumadóttir, CEO of Creative Commons.
Please join us in wishing Cable farewell! Thankfully, as Cable departs for his next adventure, this isn’t goodbye. He will join the CC Advisory Council and be available to CC as needed. To stay connected, you can find him on LinkedIn.
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]]>The post Creative Commons Becomes an Official UNESCO NGO Partner appeared first on Creative Commons.
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We are proud to announce that we are now established as an official NGO partner to UNESCO (consultative status). UNESCO stands for “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” and is the UN’s specialized agency that aims to foster international cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture, and communication.
This new, formal status is an important recognition of the synergies between our two organizations and of our shared commitment to openness as a means to benefit everyone worldwide. As an official NGO partner, Creative Commons (CC) will now have the opportunity to contribute to UNESCO’s program and to interact with other official partner NGOs with common goals. In particular, we look forward to:
- Participating in UNESCO meetings and consultations on various subjects core to CC’s mission. This will give us a seat at the table to advocate for the communities we serve and share our expertise on openness, the commons, and access to knowledge.
- Participating in UNESCO’s governing bodies in an observer capacity. This will enable us to deliver official statements on matters within our sphere of expertise and contribute to determining UNESCO’s policies and main lines of work, including its programs and budget.
- Taking part in consultations about UNESCO’s strategy and program and being involved in UNESCO’s programming cycle. This will give us opportunities to communicate our views and suggestions on proposals by the Director-General.
Becoming an official partner is a testament to our rich and long-standing collaboration with UNESCO over the past 24 years. Over this time, CC and our community have developed trusted relationships with UNESCO staff and Member State representatives, yielding many opportunities to engage and collaborate effectively.
For example, CC was deeply involved with and supported the development of UNESCO’s 2019 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER), and continues to play an important role in its implementation. CC participated in the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress in November 2024 as well as in the UNESCO Dynamic OER Coalition meeting to make final recommendations on the Dubai Declaration on OER.
Likewise, CC contributed to the development of the UNESCO 2021 Recommendation on Open Science and advised UNESCO in adopting its open access policy, where CC licenses are a core component.
At the International Conference of the Memory of the World Programme: Memory of the World: at the Crossroads of International Understanding and Cooperation in October 2024, we engaged in conversations about the importance of preserving and supporting access to heritage, as well as the many challenges archives, libraries, and museums face in ensuring intercultural collaboration on a global scale.
These achievements are a testament to the dedication of CC community members promoting openness globally and to the many open champions within UNESCO.
Today, as we steer the Towards a Recommendation on Open Cultural Heritage (TAROCH) Coalition, we draw inspiration from UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program and 2015 Recommendation concerning the preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage, including in digital form, to advance equitable access to public domain heritage. In 2020, we collaborated with the Memory of the World Regional Committee for Asia-Pacific (MOWCAP) and UNESCO Bangkok in a webinar series to promote universal access to documentary heritage.
As we continue to advance TAROCH, we know that the role of open solutions in removing unfair economic, legal, technological, and sociocultural barriers to access heritage, while fostering creative reuse and telling the stories of our shared humanity, is more important than ever.
Looking Ahead
We look forward to the exciting new opportunities for strategic collaboration on the horizon.
With Mondiacult 2025, the world’s biggest cultural policy conference, taking place soon, we look forward to assisting UNESCO in delivering on its key priority of “ensuring equitable access to heritage,” as indicated in the Mondiacult 2025 concept note. CC’s efforts through TAROCH to remove barriers, support interoperability, and create and share heritage with open licenses and tools can strengthen equitable access to heritage. Once heritage is accessible, we collectively have the opportunity to build more connected, resilient, and sustainable societies. Make sure to join us at our Mondiacult virtual side event on September 17, 2025.
For more information:
- Contact us at info@creativecommons.org
- Join the TAROCH Coalition
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]]>The post CC @ SXSW: Protecting the Commons in the Age of AI appeared first on Creative Commons.
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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 reciprocity to defend and protect the commons as well as the importance of openness in AI and open licensing to avoid an enclosure of the commons.
Last month, we took some of these conversations on the road and hosted the Open House for an Open Future during SXSW in Austin, TX, as part of a weekend-long Wiki Haus event with our friends at the Wikimedia Foundation.
During the event, we spoke with Audrey Tang and Cory Doctorow about the future of open, especially as we look towards CC’s 25th anniversary in 2026. In this wide-ranging conversation, a number of themes were reflected that capture both where we’ve been over the last 25 years and where we should be focusing for the next 25 years, including:
- The Fight for Technological Self-Determination: Contractual restrictions are increasingly being used to lock down essential technologies, from printer ink to hospital ventilators. The push for openness and economic fairness must go beyond just content-sharing and extend to fighting for the rights of people to repair, modify, and use technology freely.
- Shifting from Resistance to Building Alternatives: The open movement is not just about opposing corporate restrictions but also about creating viable, open alternatives. Initiatives like Gov Zero show that fostering decentralized, user-controlled platforms can help counteract monopolistic digital ecosystems.
- The Power of Exit as a Lever for Change: Simply having the option to leave restrictive platforms can influence corporate behavior. Efforts like Free Our Feeds and Bluesky aim to create credible exit strategies that prevent users from being locked into exploitative digital environments.
- Beyond Copyright: New Frameworks for Openness and Innovation: While Creative Commons began as a response to copyright limitations, the next phase should focus on broader issues like supporting an infrastructure for open sharing, ethical AI development, and open governance models that empower communities rather than just limiting corporate control.
- Reclaiming the Ethos of Open Source and Free Software: The movement must reconnect with its ethical roots, focusing on freedom to create, share, and innovate—not just openness for the sake of efficiency. This includes resisting corporate capture of “openness” and ensuring technological advances serve public interest rather than private profit.
Since the proliferation of mainstream AI, we’ve been analyzing the limitations of copyright (and, by extension, the CC licenses since they are built atop copyright law) as the right lens to think about guardrails for AI training. This means we need new tools and approaches in this age of AI that complement open licensing, while also advancing the AI ecosystem toward the public interest. Preference signals are based on the idea that creators and dataset holders should be active participants in deciding how and/or if their content is used for AI training. Our friends at Bluesky, for example, have recently put forth a proposal on User Intents for Data Reuse, which is well worth a read to conceptualize how a preference signals approach could be considered on a social media platform. We’ve also been actively participating in the IETF’s AI Preferences Working Group, since submitting a position paper on the subject mid-2024 .
As CC gets closer to launching a protocol based on prosocial preference signals—a simple pact between those stewarding the data and those reusing it for generative AI training—we had the opportunity during SXSW to chat with some great thought leaders about this very topic. Our panelists were Aubra Anthony, Senior Fellow, Technology and International Affairs Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Zachary J. McDowell, Phd, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago; Lane Becker, President, Wikimedia LLC at Wikimedia Foundation, and our very own Anna Tumadóttir, CEO, Creative Commons to explore sharing in the age of AI. A few key takeaways from this conversation included:
- Balancing Norms and Legal Frameworks: There is a growing interest in developing normative approaches and civil structures that go beyond traditional legal frameworks to ensure equitable use and transparency.
- Navigating AI Traffic and Commercial Use: Wikimedia is adapting to the influx of AI-driven bot traffic and exploring how to differentiate between commercial and non-commercial use. The idea of treating commercial traffic differently and finding ways to fundraise off bot traffic is becoming more prominent, raising important questions about sustainability in an open knowledge ecosystem. From CC’s perspective, we’ve found that as our open infrastructures mature they become increasingly taken for granted, a notion that is not conducive to a sustainable open ecosystem.
- Openness in the Age of AI: There is growing reticence around openness, with creators becoming more cautious about sharing content due to the rise of generative AI (note, this is exactly what our preference signals framework is meant to address, so stay tuned!). We should emphasize the need for open initiatives to adapt to the broader social and economic context, balancing openness with creators’ concerns about protection and sustainability.
- Making Participation Easy and Understandable: To encourage widespread participation in open knowledge systems and for preference signal adoption, tools will need to be simple and intuitive. Whether through collective benefit models or platform cooperativism, ease of use and clarity are essential to engaging the broader public in contributing to open initiatives.
Did you know that many social justice and public good organizations are unable to participate in influential and culture-making events like SXSW due to a lack of funding? CC is a nonprofit organization and all of our activities must be cost-recovery. 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. If you would like to contribute to our work, consider joining the Open Infrastructure Circle which will help to fund a framework that makes reciprocity actionable when shared knowledge is used to train generative AI.
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]]>The post Reciprocity in the Age of AI appeared first on Creative Commons.
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A lot has changed in the past few years, and it is high time for Creative Commons (CC) to be louder about our values. Underpinning our recently released strategic plan is a renewed call for reciprocity. Neutrality serves only the status quo and there is nothing neutral about fighting for a more equitable world through open practices and sharing knowledge.
Since the inception of CC, there have been two sides to the licenses. There’s the legal side, which describes in explicit and legally sound terms, what rights are granted for a particular item. But, equally there’s the social side, which is communicated when someone applies the CC icons. The icon acts as identification, a badge, a symbol that we are in this together, and that’s why we are sharing. Whether it’s scientific research, educational materials, or poetry, when it’s marked with a CC license it’s also accompanied by a social agreement which is anchored in reciprocity. This is for all of us.
But, with the mainstream emergence of generative AI, that social agreement has come into question and come under threat, with knock-on consequences for the greater commons. Current approaches to building commercial foundation models lack reciprocity. No one shares photos of ptarmigans to get rich, no one contributes to articles about Huldufólk seeking fame. It is about sharing knowledge. But when that shared knowledge is opaquely ingested, credit is not given, and the crawlers ramp up server activity (and fees) to the degree where the human experience is degraded, folks are demotivated to continue contributing.
The open movement has always fought for shared knowledge to be accessible for everyone and anyone to use, to learn from. We don’t want to slow down scientific discovery. If we can more rapidly learn, discover, and innovate, with the use of new technologies, that’s wonderful. As long as we’re actually in this together.
What we ultimately want, and what we believe we need, is a commons that is strong, resilient, growing, useful (to machines and to humans)—all the good things, frankly. But as our open infrastructures mature they become increasingly taken for granted, and the feeling that “this is for all of us” is replaced with “everyone is entitled to this”. While this sounds the same, it really isn’t. Because with entitlement comes misuse, the social contract breaks, reciprocation evaporates, and ultimately the magic weakens.
Reciprocity in the age of AI means fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between creators/data stewards and AI model builders. For AI model builders who disproportionately benefit from the commons, reciprocity is a way of giving back to the commons that is community and context specific.
(And in case it wasn’t already clear, this piece isn’t about policy or laws, but about centering people).
This is where our values need to enter the equation: we cannot sit neutrally by and allow “this is for everyone” to mean that grossly disproportionate benefits of the commons accrue to the few. That our shared knowledge pools get siphoned off and kept from us.
We believe reciprocity must be embedded in the AI ecosystem in order to uphold the social contract behind sharing. If you benefit from the commons, and (critically) if you are in a position to give back to the commons, you should. Because the commons are for everyone, which means we all need to uphold the value of the commons by contributing in whatever way is appropriate.
There never has been, nor should there be, a mandatory 1:1 exchange between each individual and the commons. What’s appropriate then, as a way to give back? So many possibilities come to mind, including:
- Increasing agency as a means to achieve reciprocity by allowing data holders to signal their preferences for AI training
- Credit, in the form of attribution, when possible
- Open infrastructure support
- Cooperative dataset development
- Putting model weights or other components into the commons
When we talk about defending the commons, it involves sustaining them, growing them, and making sure that the social contract remains intact for future generations of humans. And for that to happen, it’s time for some reciprocity.
Part of CC being louder about our values is also taking action in the form of a social protocol that is built on preference signals, a simple pact between those stewarding data and those reusing it for generative AI. Like CC licenses, they are aimed at well-meaning actors and designed to establish new social norms around sharing and access based on reciprocity. We’re actively working alongside values-aligned partners to pilot a framework that makes reciprocity actionable when shared knowledge is used to train generative AI. Consider joining the Open Infrastructure Circle to help us move this work forward.
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]]>The post Welcoming New CC Board Members appeared first on Creative Commons.
]]>We’re pleased to introduce four new members to our Board: Alwaleed Alkhaja, Melissa Hagemann, Melissa Omino, and Colin Sullivan.
Familiar faces within the CC community, Alwaleed, Melissa, Melissa, and Colin bring prior experience within our organization, having previously partnered with us as community advocates with a history of dedicated support for the open movement.
Each of our new Board members brings a unique expertise that will help strengthen CC’s impact and guide our strategic vision forward. Their diverse backgrounds and commitment to the open movement strengthen our already dedicated Board, representing exactly what we need as we continue to grow and evolve our work to achieve our 2025-2028 goals.
Alwaleed Alkhaja
Alwaleed Alkhaja serves as the Head of Open Access and Copyright at the Qatar National Library, where he oversees the library’s open access program and all copyright-related matters. Throughout his academic and professional career, he has held various roles in open access publishing and open science. His experience ranges from editorial positions at Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals to overseeing academic publishing at Hamad bin Khalifa University Press/QScience.com (the first open access publisher in Qatar).
Alwaleed’s passion for open science is rooted in his background in scientific research. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Leeds and received his master’s and PhD in Molecular Biology from the Max Planck International School of Molecular Biology in Göttingen, Germany. He also holds an MBA from the University of Manchester. Alwaleed voluntarily supports several international organizations, including serving on the board of Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) and advisory board of the Forum for Open Research in MENA (FORM).
In his free time, he enjoys photography and exploring experimental techniques, including macro photography, pinhole photography (constructing a room-sized camera obscura), cyanotype printing, and infrared photography.
Melissa Hagemann
Melissa Hagemann has been at the forefront of the Access to Knowledge movement for over twenty years. She managed the Open Society Foundations’ work to define open access to research through the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and went on to support the development of the global open access movement. To mark the 20th anniversary of the BOAI, she spearheaded the development of new recommendations which emphasize that open access is not an end in itself, but a means to further ends, above all, to the equity, quality, sustainability, and usability of research. Currently she is the Director of the BOAI Org, which advocates for the equitable development of open access globally.
Melissa co-organized the meeting that led to the Cape Town Open Education Declaration, which offered strategies for the growth of the global open education movement. In addition, she supported the advancement of progressive copyright reform at the national and international levels.
She has served on numerous boards, including the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as the Open Climate Campaign.
Melissa Omino
Dr Melissa Omino is currently the Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) at Strathmore University, where she oversees the research direction of the leading Eastern African AI Policy Hub and Data Governance Policy Centre with a range of funding partners that includes the IDRC, Hewlett Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Open AIR.
Her research direction is focused on utilizing an African lens and a Human Rights lens. Part of the research conducted under Dr Omino’s leadership at CIPIT involved mapping AI applications in Africa as the initial step in answering the question of what determines African AI and the problems it aims to solve in Africa. Dr Omino is also an intellectual property (IP) expert with a research focus on the development and negotiation of IP provisions in international trade agreements by and with Global South countries.
She has served as an Advisory Board member in several African and Global Projects that intersect between AI and IP, including a National AI Strategy Process, and leading the IP Advisory to a global entity funding AI research in Africa.
Colin Sullivan
Colin Sullivan is the General Counsel at Patreon, where he oversees the operations teams that ensure the platform remains a safe and stable home for creators. His responsibilities include leading the legal, trust & safety, payment operations, fraud and compliance teams. With a focus on protecting creators and maintaining a trustworthy environment, Colin plays a pivotal role in Patreon’s mission of funding the creative class and safeguarding their creative freedom. Before joining Patreon, Colin founded his own law firm where he served as outside general counsel to entrepreneurs and startups.
A Big Thank You to Alek Tarkowski
Please join us in thanking outgoing CC Board member, Alek Tarkowski who completed his five year term at the end of 2024. Alek is the Director of Strategy at Open Future and brought to the CC Board over 15 years of experience with public interest advocacy, movement building and research into the intersection of society, culture and digital technologies. As a longtime CC community member, in 2005, he co-founded Creative Commons Poland. During his time on the Board, Alex supported the development of CC’s organizational strategy and provided leadership in developing CC’s approach to sharing in the age of AI. Thankfully, Alek won’t be going too far away as he now joins the CC Advisory Council.
Welcome Alwaleed. Melissa, Melissa, and Colin, and thank you Alek!
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