Editing Creative Commons (section)

{{short description|Organization creating copyright licenses for the public release of creative works}}
{{About|the organization|their eponymous licenses|Creative Commons license|usage of product|List of major Creative Commons licensed works}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Creative Commons
| full_name = Creative Commons Corporation
| logo = [[File:CC-logo.svg|frameless|class=skin-invert]]
| logo_size =
| logo_alt = On the left is a circle with the letter "cc" inside of it. On the right is the text "creative commons".
| logo_caption = 
| founded_date = {{start date and age|2001|1|15}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whois.domaintools.com/creativecommons.org|title=CreativeCommons.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools|work=[[WHOIS]]|access-date=July 11, 2019|archive-date=April 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409123545/http://whois.domaintools.com/creativecommons.org|url-status=live}}</ref>
| headquarters = [[Mountain View, California]], U.S.
| founder = [[Lawrence Lessig]]
| key_people = [[Anna Tumadóttir]], CEO<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/2024/04/10/anna-tumadottir-appointed-as-ceo-of-creative-commons/|title=Anna Tumadóttir Appointed as CEO of Creative Commons|date=April 10, 2024|publisher=Creative Commons}}</ref>
| type = [[501(c)(3)]]
| tax_id = 04-3585301
| revenue = {{increase}} US$9.8 million<ref>{{cite web |title=Creative Commons Corporation - Tax Form 990 |url=https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/043585301_202112_990_2023031021080150.pdf |website=irs.gov |publisher=Internal Revenue Service |access-date=15 August 2024}}</ref>
| revenue_year = 2021
| focus = Expansion of "reasonable", flexible copyright
| method = [[Creative Commons license]]
| homepage = {{ConditionalURL}}
}}
'''Creative Commons''' ('''CC''') is an American [[non-profit organization]] and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of [[creative works]] available for others to build upon legally and to share.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/faq/|title=Frequently Asked Questions|publisher=Creative Commons|date=August 4, 2016|access-date=December 20, 2011|archive-date=November 27, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127205528/http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ|url-status=live}}</ref> The organization has released several [[copyright]] [[license]]s, known as [[Creative Commons license]]s, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow authors of creative works to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they [[waive]] for the benefit of recipients or other creators. A simplified one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Content owners still maintain their copyright, but Creative Commons licenses give standard releases that replace the individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and [[licensee]], that are necessary under an "[[all rights reserved]]" copyright management.

The organization was founded in 2001 by [[Lawrence Lessig]], [[Hal Abelson]], and [[Eric Eldred]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/about/history|title=Creative Commons: History|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007165253/http://creativecommons.org/about/history|archive-date=October 7, 2011|access-date=October 9, 2011}}</ref> with the support of [[Center for the Public Domain]]. The first article in a general interest publication about Creative Commons, written by [[Hal Plotkin]], was published in February 2002.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2002%2F02%2F11%2Fcreatcom.DTL|title=All Hail Creative Commons / Stanford professor and author Lawrence Lessig plans a legal insurrection|last=Plotkin|first=Hal|newspaper=SFGate|date=February 11, 2002|access-date=March 8, 2011|archive-date=July 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716212731/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2002%2F02%2F11%2Fcreatcom.DTL|url-status=live}}</ref> The first set of copyright licenses was released in December 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/about/history/|title=History of Creative Commons|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091103232523/http://creativecommons.org/about/history|archive-date=November 3, 2009|access-date=November 8, 2009}}</ref> The founding management team that developed the licenses and built the Creative Commons infrastructure as it is known today included [[Molly Shaffer Van Houweling]], Glenn Otis Brown, Neeru Paharia, and Ben Adida.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/3483|title=Creative Commons Announces New Management Team|last=Haughey|first=Matt|date=September 18, 2002|publisher=Creative Commons|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722162239/http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/3483|archive-date=July 22, 2013|access-date=May 7, 2013}}</ref>

In 2002, Creative Commons was selected as the successor of the Open Content Project, a 1998 precursor project by [[David A. Wiley]]. Wiley subsequently joined Creative Commons as its director.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://opencontent.org/|title=OpenContent is officially closed. And that's just fine.|last=Wiley|first=David A.|author-link=David A. Wiley|publisher=opencontent.org|date=June 30, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030802222546/http://opencontent.org/|archive-date=August 2, 2003|quote=I'm closing OpenContent because I think Creative Commons is doing a better job of providing licensing options which will stand up in court|access-date=February 21, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blog.creativecommons.org/2003/06/23/creativecommonswelcomesdavidwileyaseducationaluselicenseprojectlead/|title=Creative Commons Welcomes David Wiley as Educational Use License Project Lead|author=matt|website=creativecommons.org|date=June 23, 2003|access-date=February 21, 2016|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212841/https://blog.creativecommons.org/2003/06/23/creativecommonswelcomesdavidwileyaseducationaluselicenseprojectlead/|url-status=live}}</ref> The licenses published by the Open Content Project, the [[Open Content License]] and [[Open Publication License]], were soon deprecated in favour of Creative Commons licenses.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About the Open Publication License – improving learning |url=https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/329 |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=opencontent.org}}</ref> [[Aaron Swartz]] played a role in the early stages of Creative Commons,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36298|title=Remembering Aaron Swartz|last=Lessig|first=Lawrence|date=January 12, 2013|publisher=Creative Commons|access-date=May 7, 2013|archive-date=December 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204034753/http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/36298|url-status=live}}</ref> as did [[Matthew Haughey]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://creativecommons.org/2005/04/04/matthaughey/|title=Matt Haughey|date=April 4, 2005|publisher=Creative Commons|language=en-US|access-date=January 11, 2018|archive-date=January 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112042538/https://creativecommons.org/2005/04/04/matthaughey/|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{As of|2019}}, there were "nearly 2 billion" works licensed under the various Creative Commons licenses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/2/20/CC_AnnualReport_2019.pdf|title=Creative Commons Annual Report 2019|publisher=Creative Commons|language=en-US|access-date=September 6, 2021|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108104156/https://wiki.creativecommons.org/images/2/20/CC_AnnualReport_2019.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Wikipedia]] and its [[sister projects]] use one of these licenses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use|title=Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use|access-date=June 11, 2012|archive-date=June 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120613064827/http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_use|url-status=live}}</ref> According to a 2017 report, [[Flickr]] alone hosted over 415 million cc-licensed photos, along with around 49 million works in [[YouTube]], 40 million works in [[DeviantArt]] and 37 million works in [[Wikimedia Commons]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/|title=Flickr: Creative Commons|website=Flickr|language=en-us|access-date=January 16, 2018|archive-date=February 15, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215231457/http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://stateof.creativecommons.org/|title=State of the Commons 2017|website=State of the Commons 2017|language=en-us|access-date=September 15, 2019|archive-date=October 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019015651/https://stateof.creativecommons.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> The licenses are also used by [[Stack Exchange]], [[MDN Web Docs|MDN]], [[Internet Archive]], [[Khan Academy]], [[LibreTexts]], [[OpenStax]], [[MIT OpenCourseWare]], [[WikiHow]], [[TED (conference)|TED]], [[OpenStreetMap]], [[GeoGebra]], [[Doubtnut]], [[Fandom (website)|Fandom]], [[Arduino]], [[CcMixter|ccmixter.org]], [[Ninjam]], etc., and formerly by [[Unsplash]], [[Pixabay]], and [[Socratic (Google)|Socratic]].