Creative Commons

New blog post! What have we been working on with CC signals in 2025? Want to get involved? 📝 Read the blog post: https://buff.ly/GC0ZkYn 🙋♀️ Express interest in participating in the Mozilla Data Collective pilot project: https://buff.ly/MGCl1b3 🎁 Support CC signals with a gift: https://buff.ly/tEg1IkU

Right now, knowledge sharing institutions and digital collections around the world are facing a new kind of threat. With AI bots flooding online repositories, scraping data so fast they’re crashing websites and knocking digital collections offline, it’s getting harder for libraries to keep knowledge open and accessible to everyone. We want checks and balances on AI so that libraries can keep sharing and so that everyone can have access to knowledge. With CC signals, we’re creating a clear way for them to indicate how they wish for their content to be used in the development of AI models. It’s an exciting project but one we can’t do alone. Every small donation makes a difference. Join us in protecting the commons with a donation today. https://buff.ly/sbZgGBL

New name. Growing movement. Shared purpose. The TAROCH Coalition is now the Open Heritage Coalition. This clearer, more accessible name puts the Open Heritage Statement at the center of our global advocacy, advancing equitable access to heritage in the public domain. The Statement was launched two months ago, and we are excited to announce that 55 organizations have now signed. Join us! Learn more and sign the Statement: https://buff.ly/ZyplbNX #openheritagecoalition #openheritagestatement

We've shared a primer on pay-to-crawl in our latest issue brief, and details on our collaboration with the RSL collective, incorporating elements of CC signals into their new standards. But where does CC stand on pay-to-crawl? Read our full blog post for all of the details: https://buff.ly/AUFJwqL Image: "Distorted Sand Mine" by Lone Thomasky & Bits&Bäume, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

How does Global Open Initiative's work preserving and sharing cultural knowledge in Ghana connect to the Open Heritage Statement? Harriet Bayel, the organization's community lead, shares, "What this global call does for us is that it helps us to have a collective effort towards ensuring that there's equitable access to the public domain." Hear Harriet's full remarks from the OHS launch, and then join the over 50 partners who have already signed the Statement: https://buff.ly/WhTsdyE.

Today, the Real Simple Licensing (RSL) Collective releases the RSL 1.0 standard. CC worked with the RSL Collective ahead of this release to integrate components of the CC signals framework into the new standard. On the surface, CC 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 thoughtfully designed pay-to-crawl systems may help curb extractive behavior by powerful actors while keeping the web open for everyone else. We believe that collaborations like this one are vital if we’re going to achieve a systems-level response to rebalance power in the digital commons. While there is much more work to be done, we are excited about this big step forward. Read more about how we worked to infuse concepts of attribution, compensation, and reciprocity into the standards in our newest blog post! 📷 "Studying" by Dr. Matthias Ripp, CC BY 2.0, Flickr.

CC will be speaking at the Museum Association 's Open Minds conference about copyright and open heritage in museums! Through a mix of panel discussions, case studies, and audience participation, the event will explore the latest approaches to and trends in collections copyright, the impact of technological developments and AI on copyright, income streams relating to copyright, and more. Register for the online event at: https://buff.ly/rmDVXLb Image: "Inside The British Museum" by Henry Burrows licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0.

Thank you to the Siegel Family Endowment for supporting our work to shape an open and accessible future!

We’re in the final hours of #GivingTuesday, and we are less than 5% of the way toward our ambitious $100,000 goal for the end of this year. Can you help? As AI systems scrape the web, some are choosing to stop sharing their content due to fear of misuse and a lack of reciprocity. If people don’t trust how their content is being used, they may stop sharing altogether. That’s a real loss for the commons — and for everyone who depends on it. That’s why we’re developing solutions, like CC signals, to restore balance between AI platforms and dataset holders. Will you stand with us and make a gift to Creative Commons? Every dollar raised goes to support our fight for a thriving, equitable global commons. https://buff.ly/hyc4JwX Image: Marie-Amélie, Queen of the French by Baron François Joseph Bosio, 1841, CC0. Remixed by Creative Commons/Annemarie Eayrs, 2025, CC0.

We’ve all tried to access information, only to hit a paywall and be shut out. Now imagine that happening everywhere on the web. When AI companies extract from the commons without giving back, they exploit the people who sustain it and push the commons towards becoming more closed off. Collective knowledge is being converted into hoarded wealth and concentrated power, instead of shared public value. We’re building a solution to protect the commons and create checks and balances on AI so that everyone has access to knowledge. We can’t do this without your support. Give a gift to help bring us closer to our goal and support this ambitious project. https://buff.ly/NsRtgAs Work used: Irises by Vincent van Gogh, 1890, CC0. Remixed by Creative Commons/Annemarie Eayrs, 2025, CC0.