View source for Creative Commons

{{Infobox organization
| name                = Creative Commons
| logo                = CC-logo.svg
| logo_size           = 200px
| 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}}</ref>
| founder             = [[Lawrence Lessig]]
| key_people          = Catherine Stihler (CEO)
| type                = [[501(c)(3)]]
| tax_id              = 04-3585301
| revenue             = {{decrease}} $1.6 million<ref>{{cite web|url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/43585301|title=CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION|work=Nonprofit Explorer|publisher=[[ProPublica]]|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref>
| revenue_year        = 2017
| 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 [[creativity]] 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}}</ref> The organization has released several [[copyright]] [[license]]s, known as Creative Commons licenses, 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. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and [[licensee]], which are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management, with a "some rights reserved" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner. The result is an agile, low-overhead, and low-cost copyright-management regime, benefiting both copyright owners and licensees.

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=/g/a/2002/02/11/creatcom.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}}</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 we know it 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, the [[Open Content Project]], a 1998 precursor project by [[David A. Wiley]], announced the Creative Commons as successor project and Wiley joined as CC 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}}</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}}</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}}</ref>

As of May 2018, there were 1.4 billion works licensed under the various Creative Commons licenses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stateof.creativecommons.org/|title=State of the Commons – Creative Commons 2017|website=stateof.creativecommons.org|language=en-US|access-date=January 13, 2018}}</ref> [[Wikipedia]] uses 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}}</ref> As of May 2018, [[Flickr]] alone hosted over 415 million Creative Commons-licensed photos.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/|title=Flickr: Creative Commons|website=Flickr|language=en-us|access-date=January 16, 2018}}</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}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|commons=Category:Creative Commons|s=Category:Creative Commons|n=no|b=no|v=Creative Commons|voy=no|species=no|wikt=Creative Commons|d=Q43449|q=Creative Commons}}
*{{Official website|name=Creative Commons}}
*[https://wiki.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons wiki]
*[http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/ Short Flash animation describing Creative Commons]
*[https://br.creativecommons.org/copyright-week-en/ Creative Commonsː Copyright Week: What happened to the Brazilian Copyright Reform? (english)]
*[https://creativecommons.org/about/program-areas/policy-advocacy-copyright-reform/reform/ Creative Commonsː Copyright Reform (english)]

{{Creative Commons}}
{{Intellectual property activism}}
{{Open movements}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Creative Commons]]
[[Category:2001 establishments in California]]
[[Category:Computer law organizations]]
[[Category:Copyleft]]
[[Category:Copyright law organizations]]
[[Category:Intellectual property organizations]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 2001]]
[[Category:Non-profit organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:501(c)(3) organizations]]
[[Category:Open science]]
[[Category:Mountain View, California]]