Creative Commons

Join us for a rare and intimate conversation with some of the voices who helped build the commons in this virtual Founders Fireside Chat on June 23 from 1-2:30 pm EDT. To mark 25 years of Creative Commons, this special founders fireside chat brings together Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Molly Van Houweling, in conversation with moderator Glenn O. Brown. Together, they’ll go beyond the official history to share what it actually felt like to build Creative Commons in its earliest days. Hear about the uncertainty, the debates, and the moments that made them believe this idea could reshape how the world shares knowledge and creativity. Thank you to Champion sponsor Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP for supporting this event!

Creative Commons will be developing new trainings to continue providing the most relevant and up-to-date content. These trainings, which we aim to offer in 2027, will likely be two-week courses that offer a digital recognition, or microcredential, upon successful completion. Help inform the future trainings by completing this short (1 to 2 minutes) survey on professional development needs, subject matter, and learning formats.

Join us for a panel discussion as a part of Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary celebrations, the Legacy & History of Open Culture. 🥳 We'll be discussing how a set of principled ideas about access, sharing, and collaboration grew into a global movement. Panelists include Medhavi Gandhi, Founder of the Heritage Lab; Merete Sanderhoff, Curator and senior advisor of digital museum practice at SMK; Giovanna Fontenelle, Program Officer, Content Enablement at Wikimedia Foundation... and me! Come hear about our experiences as a part of this early movement, and some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way: https://lnkd.in/ec_xJR5Y

In our next virtual panel event on June 12 at 7am EDT, explore the legacy and history of copyright and open licensing—examining how new legal and cultural frameworks for sharing creativity helped expand public access to knowledge, culture, and collaboration around the world. This panel will reflect on the origins of open licensing, the development of the Creative Commons licenses, and the communities, legal experts, and advocates who helped build a global commons grounded in sharing and reuse. Speakers include Kat Walsh, Luis Villa, Tyng-Ruey Chuang, and Tomoaki Watanabe, with moderator Diyana Noory.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the incredible panel event on the legacy and history of Open Science! If you missed it, check out the event recording to hear the panel of experts as they reflect on how a belief in open, accessible, and reusable knowledge grew into a global movement to transform the way research is shared and built upon. https://buff.ly/LiiXgPy

The #OpenHeritageCoalition: 74 organizations. All continents. One #OpenHeritageStatement. A clear ask towards a UNESCO instrument. This Statement didn't build itself. It was co-created by a coalition who believes that equitable access to heritage is worth fighting for. We are so grateful. Truly. The Statement just surpassed 100 signatories. Add your voice to remove unfair barriers to access at openheritagestatement.org!

What's happening at CC in June? 💼 Legal Office Hours | June 3, 2-3pm EDT Register: https://buff.ly/qJ17anj 🔭 The History & Legacy of Open Science | June 4, 10-11am EDT Register: https://buff.ly/M3bStL5 🌍 Community Office Hours | June 8, 5-6pm EDT Register: https://buff.ly/AzVyyQ8 🎨 The Legacy & History of Open Culture | June 16, 2:30-3:30pm UTC Register: https://buff.ly/upKZX9u 🍓 CC101: Intro to the CC Licenses | June 17, 10-11:30am EDT Register: https://buff.ly/ivVGNo3 Attribution: "Colour classification according to Mr. Chevreul's system" by René Henri Digeon and M. E. Chevreul, 1868 is marked in the public domain.

As part of Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary celebration, this special CC101 webinar invites you to dive into the world of CC licenses. Whether you're an artist, educator, researcher, librarian, or just curious, this session is the perfect way to dive into CC licensing (or brush up on your foundational knowledge for the experts out there!). Join us on June 17 from 10-11:30am EDT! https://lnkd.in/gx67kgGJ

Join us for  a virtual panel on The Legacy & History of Open Culture on June 16 from 2:30 pm-3:30 pm UTC! In the early 2000s, a handful of trailblazing galleries, libraries, archives, and museums made a radical choice: to digitize their collections and release them freely, without restriction, to anyone in the world. There was no playbook. There was no mandate. There was only a conviction that cultural heritage, the shared memory of humanity, belonged to everyone, and that the internet had made it possible, for the first time, to act on that conviction at scale. Hear about that origin story from a panel of Open Culture experts, featuring Medhavi Gandhi, Merete Sanderhoff, Andrea Wallace, and Giovanna Fontenelle, with opening remarks by Brigitte Vézina and moderated by Dee Harris. https://lnkd.in/gs927sqb

CC is excited to share our featured artists who have been commissioned to create limited-edition merch designs for our 25th anniversary! Check out their work (in order of appearance below). Merch with the new designs will drop in July 🔥 🎨 Abraham K. Tumwine is a 20-year-old Ugandan digital mixed-media artist, synthesizing painting, 3D modeling, and animation. His work explores the intersection of Afrocentricity and the breadth of global Black culture, examining how these identities have been shaped, translated and reimagined within shifting landscapes. To ensure each piece remains an open dialogue with the viewer, he also weaves together a cryptic visual language of contemporary doodles, modern signage, and ancient African symbols. 🎨 JUM is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist currently based in Brazil after spending a decade living in Asia. Her practice has evolved and transformed around digital illustration and animations, mural painting, and exploring mixed media paintings and embroidery. Influenced by surrealism, early modern art, and Brazilian folk traditions, JUM creates dreamlike landscapes shaped by organic and imagined natural elements. Her work explores themes of belonging, womanhood, cultural memory, and the experience of returning home, creating visually striking compositions that aim to move beyond rational thought and connect with the viewer’s primal emotional world. 🎨 Amogh Bhatnagar designs books, visual identities, editorial illustrations, and exhibition publications, and is interested in how images, text, and structure produce meaning together. His practice involves image-making using collage as the primary medium to mediate between images that are already made, and images that can be made. The source material comes from various places: old books, the internet, and images of old books on the internet. 🎨 Ellis Tolsma a freelance illustrator and visual artist from Utrecht, the Netherlands. She uses a cheerful and graphic visual language inspired by vintage children's books, patterns & toys. Her work is characterized by geometric shapes, bold color combinations, abstractions, and a retro touch, which is enhanceed by printing with an old-fashioned risoprinter. Ellis also runs Studio Misprint and believes in the importance of constantly reimagining the creative process and making mistakes on the way.