When we share something, what do we owe one another?
For our Commons Story series, celebrating CC’s 25th anniversary, Sarah Hinchliff Pearson reflects on relationships and shared responsibility. “The commons is a way of structuring relationships to our resources.” What would a thriving commons make possible in your future?
Read more: https://creativecommons.org/2026/11/05/commons-stories-part-3/
What does the commons mean to you? For Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary, we posed this question to some of the people behind CC. In the second installment of our four-part series, Brigitte Vézina imagines the commons as a bonsai, shaped by collective care, creativity, and a little pruning. Catch up on Part 1, and stay tuned for another perspective in Part 3!
https://creativecommons.org/2026/10/28/commons-stories-part-2/
Join us for our next event CC301: AI, Copyright, and the Commons on November 17 from 10 am–11 am EST to hear about the relationship between AI, copyright, and CC licenses, as well as the latest developments in our CC Signals project. The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A.
https://creativecommons.org/event/creative-commons-301-ai-copyright-and-the-commons/
Where do you go online to follow your curiosity and share what you know? For our Commons Stories series, celebrating CC’s 25th anniversary, Jocelyn Miyara reflects on the value of open spaces.
What’s a space for open sharing you wish more people knew about?
Read more: https://creativecommons.org/2026/10/27/commons-stories-part-1/
What becomes possible when access to knowledge doesn’t depend on where you live or whom you know? For Commons Stories, celebrating CC’s 25th anniversary, Vito Quaglia reflects on access, cooperation, and participation. “To me, the commons means democracy. The commons nurtures the sharing of ideas, solutions, and creativity.”
What’s something you think everyone should have the opportunity to learn, experience, or create?
Read more: https://creativecommons.org/2026/10/27/commons-stories-part-1/
What does the Commons mean to you? Glad you asked!
For Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary, we asked some of the people behind CC: What does the commons mean to you? Their answers became this four-part series of personal reflections. We’re kicking things off with four perspectives.
Continue to follow along this week as we release more stories! And reply to share what the commons means to you!
Creative Commons and Local Contexts’ guidance is now available in Spanish! This practical resource helps museums, libraries, and archives navigate access to and reuse of Indigenous heritage and data, with respect for Indigenous rights, cultural authority, and community protocols. Explore how CC licenses and tools can work alongside Local Contexts Labels to support communities in sharing on their own terms.
Read the guidance in Spanish: https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/GUIA-PARA-LA-GESTION-DE-INFORMACION-Y-COLECCIONES-DE-ORIGEN-INDIGENA.pdf
This year’s Open Access Week theme, “The Cost of Knowledge,” raises a question: who sustains the knowledge we all depend on? Recently at OPEN @ UNGA, we explored what that responsibility looks like in an increasingly AI-mediated world.
“We want a future where openness is not simply an aspiration, but a sustainable practice.” –Anna Tumadóttir, CEO of Creative Commons
To kick off #OAWeek2026, share your favorite open resource in the comments!
In you missed our License Guidance in the Age of AI webinars, the event recording is now up! We have combined the best of the presentation with both Q&A sessions into one video.
This guidance is just one part of our ongoing work, where we will be continuing to work towards tools that give more agency, and clear rules for the AI era. Watch our blog for more to come!
To commemorate our anniversary, CC created a zine featuring submissions from the CC community! The theme is “Remix is resistance,” and features creative works that reflect how remix, reuse, adaptation, and sharing challenge power, build community, preserve culture, and imagine more just futures. Download the zine and assemble by simply folding the pages in half and stacking, or read the digital version!
Print: https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/CC25-Zine-PRINT.pdf
Digital: https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/CC25-Zine-DIGITAL.pdf
More than 10,000 historical images from Chile are now CC licensed through the platform enterreno.com! When uploading, participants can now choose a CC license, making it easier for people and institutions to find and reuse images like this alpaca 🦙
Image: "Alpaca en Hacienda Graneros en Graneros, 1983" by Jorge Sánchez from the Turistel Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC.
If you missed the Open Preprints webinar today, catch the recording to learn about CC's policy framework for funders and institutions, our advocacy strategies for researchers and libraries, and concrete steps to make preprints open by default.
Our next webinar is tomorrow, October 13, at 12pm EDT! Join CC staff for "Open Preprints: Licensing and Other Practical Policy Tools for Research Funders, Librarians, and Institutions," a 60-minute webinar and discussion on our work with experts across the research ecosystem to adopt open licensing and research preprints.
Image: "Spectra of metalloids" by René Henri Digeon from the Public Domain Image Archive is in the public domain.
Today is #DAFDay, a national day recognizing the power of generosity through donor-advised funds. For 25 years, CC has been advocating for the commons and powering open sharing online with the help of our community of donors. Join us and support the future of open sharing by initiating a transfer today!
"12 Apostles" by Lenka Husáriková is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.
Five months after Creative Commons hosted an Exploratory Dialogue on Open Heritage at UNESCO House, we returned to Paris with a smaller group of open heritage champions to discuss what comes next: how Member States can help advance action at UNESCO to establish a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Heritage.
📑 Read the blog post recap from the event: https://creativecommons.org/2026/10/02/from-reflection-to-action-8-hot-takes-from-ccs-open-heritage-roundtable/
🎈 Sign the Open Heritage Statement: https://openheritagestatement.org/
If you missed the event this morning, you can catch the recording now! Watch "Community Voices on AI: Attribution as the Norm," featuring panelists Monica Granados, Todd Carpenter, Archie Davis, Andrew Farrior, Rita Ho, and Pau Giner!
What does it mean to be part of the CC community today? This year, our annual community survey received responses from 62 community members from 23 countries. They shared their experiences, priorities, ideas, and hopes for the future of the Commons. In a new blog post, we share key takeaways and how those learnings are already shaping our community strategy for the year ahead.
https://creativecommons.org/2026/10/01/what-we-heard-from-the-creative-commons-community/
Tomorrow at #rpvienna, we are launching the campaign for our new open access volume:
The Politics of Open Infrastructures: Power, Governance and Justice in Digital Knowledge Practices
We ask how openness is designed, governed, contested and maintained across digital knowledge infrastructures.
📖 Book: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0528
🌐 Companion website: https://www.openinfrastructures.net
Over the coming weeks, we will feature the chapters, authors, interviews and blog posts.
#OpenInfrastructures #DigitalCommons
Our next virtual panel event "Community Voices on AI: Attribution as the Norm" is tomorrow, October 1, from 10-11am EDT! Join practitioners from Creative Commons, NISO, AXM, and the Wikimedia Foundation for a grounded community conversation about why attribution should be the norm in AI systems, and how the field is actually building solutions for the future.
Can't make it? We'll be posting the event recording after! Watch our social channels later this week.
https://pro.gofundme.com/event/community-voices-on-ai-attribution-as-the-norm/e845858
Recently, CC convened leading experts, practitioners, and builders for a day of conversation about the collaborative underpinnings of openness and what it can—and cannot—do to help communities and nations drive towards digital sovereignty.
In a new blog post, Anna Tumadóttir reflects on clear throughlines from the symposium, key moments from the speakers, and what conditions we must build to allow open resources to exist, evolve, and endure.
https://creativecommons.org/2026/09/30/openness-digital-sovereignty-who-sustains-the-commons/
