Skip to Main Content

Open Access: Creative Commons

This is a guide to issues in open access, author rights, copyright, open licensing, and scholarly communication.

The Origins of Creative Commons Licensing and Creative Commons Today

Throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, technological developments led to greater global digital accessibility of ideas and information.  As it became easier to share and collaborate in the online environment, standard copyright was perceived by some to be excessively restrictive.  Against this background some scholars shared a vision of increased ease of sharing and the potential for broad collaboration.

In 1998 an interesting piece of legislation called the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, increased tensions around copyright.  The act required a 20 year increase in the standard length of the copyright term for all works, past and present, extending it from 50 years to 70 years after the author's death. Lawrence Lessig and his client Eric Eldred, an internet publisher, questioned the constitutionality of the act.  They believed that the act violated the constitution's copyright clause, which specifies reasonable limits on copyright terms.  The advantage to limited copyright terms is that copyrighted works eventually move into the public domain and are freely available for new creators to draw on. Lessig and Eldred challenged the act and lost. (1)

As a result of his work on the case and his involvement with creators collaborating on the internet, Lessig spearheaded the Creative Commons license, offering a new way for creators to license their work free of the requirements of standard copyright. 

Today Creative Commons is more than a license.  Its three aspects are discussed in the boxes below.  Today, CC licenses are prevalent across the web and are used by creators around the world for every type of content you can imagine. The open movement, which extends beyond just CC licenses, is a global force of people committed to the idea that the world is better when we share and work together. Creative Commons is the nonprofit organization that stewards the CC licenses and helps support the open movement. (2)

 

Creative Commons: Licensing

Today, the CC licenses and public domain tools are considered the global standard for open licensing. They have been used on over 2.5 billion digital works.  (3)

 

Creative Commons: Nonprofit Organization

Creative Commons also refers to the nonprofit organization that supports open access and provides legal tools.  The organization is distributed across several countries and works to support an inclusive knowledge commons for the public good.  The organization empowers governments, institutions, and individuals to advance toward greater openness and collaboration. (4)

Creative Commons: Global Movement

Since 2001, a global coalition of people has formed around Creative Commons and open licensing. (5) "This includes activists working on copyright reform around the globe, policymakers advancing policies mandating open access to publicly funded educational resources, research, and data, as well as open access to cultural heritage, and creators who share a core set of values. Most of the people and institutions who are part of the CC movement are not formally connected to Creative Commons." (6)

Anyone may participate in the global movement through the CC Global Network for sharing and collaboration.  Volunteers may also become involved with the Network Platforms (open Education, Copyright, and Open Culture.