1 What is Creative Commons?
“Creative Commons” is a term that encompasses three interrelated entities:
- A non-profit organization
- A set of open licences
- A global movement
The organization
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 to facilitate the distribution of artistic works via digital technology and a set of legal tools called the Creative Commons licences.[1]
Creative Commons was founded to resolve the tension between 1) creators’ ability to easily disseminate their works using digital technology and 2) copyright law.[2] As the new millennium dawned, computers and the internet made it faster and cheaper than ever to distribute books, articles, movies, and more — but copyright laws written with printing presses in mind prevented digital technology from living up to its full potential.
The licences
Enter the Creative Commons licences: a set of open licences that allow creators to hold copyright while simultaneously permitting people around the world to use their creations. If a work carries a Creative Commons licence, anyone may copy it or share it with others, as long as they attribute the creator. Depending on its licence, you may be able to modify the work or combine it with other similarly licensed works to create something brand new.
Creative Commons licences present a simple way to share works legally via the power of the internet: those who wish to provide their works freely may do so without having to form a new agreement with every individual who wants to take advantage. The terms of a Creative Commons licence are easy to understand for all parties and remove the need for lawyers or contracts when an author wants to share the rights to use their work.
The movement
The Creative Commons movement is made up of everyone who promotes the use of Creative Commons licences, creates and shares artifacts that carry Creative Commons licences, and lobbies governments to enact policies that espouse the ideals of the movement. The Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) structures over 700 people in over 45 national chapters and connects advocates, lawyers, administrators, and authors who want to embrace the commons.
Many people are not formally connected to Creative Commons via the CCGN: instead, they drive the movement forward by creating openly licensed videos, retweeting posts by open publishing presses, and convincing their colleagues to choose open. There are also other open movements, like the Open Access movement or the push for open education by organizations like OE Global, that advocate for the use of open licences for specific purposes.
How it Started
Creative Commons was born out of conflict between copyright law and the desire to share works via the internet. It all began with the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003), which was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States by Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who would go on to found Creative Commons.
In 1995, Eric Eldred, the lead petitioner in the ca