Creative Commons (CC) is an international nonprofit organization that empowers people to grow and sustain the thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture we need to address the world’s most pressing challenges and create a brighter future for all.

Together with our global community and multiple partners, we build capacity and infrastructure, we develop practical solutions, and we advocate for better sharing: sharing that is contextual, inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal, and sustainable.

Our mission

CC empowers individuals and communities around the world by equipping them with technical, legal, and policy solutions to enable sharing of knowledge and culture in the public interest.

Our vision

A world where knowledge and culture are equitably shared in ways that serve the public interest.

Our strategy

Creating a brighter future through better, more ethical sharing.

New challenges to open sharing are emerging. That’s why we’re promoting ethical, inclusive, and purposeful sharing that serves the public interest, guided by our values of agile leadership, global inclusivity, and informed intention.

Download CC’s full 2021–2025 strategy.

Advocacy

Reshape the open ecosystem to support equitable and prosocial sharing in the public interest.

Together with the CC Global Network and Chapters, we seek to shape the policies, norms and public opinion that affect the open ecosystem, in support of open sharing that is impactful, generative, equitable and resilient. We seek to mould the framework within which sharing takes place to enhance its benefits and address the challenges it faces. Ultimately, we improve the rules to make sharing better for all people involved.

Innovation

Enhance the open infrastructure to foster sustainable and ethical sharing in the public interest.

We seek to develop and steward legal, social, and technical infrastructure that supports open sharing that is impactful, generative, equitable and resilient. We want to develop innovative solutions that meet concrete ethical and economic challenges to make sharing better.

Capacity building

Transform institutions to make knowledge and cultural heritage assets as openly accessible as possible.

We seek to enable, support, and motivate public and private institutions in the cultural heritage, education, research and data, and government sectors to open their content in legally robust ways. We want to optimize institutionss’ potential to make sharing better. We will prioritize institutional partners and practitioners that represent and cater to underserved communities as part of our commitment to an open ecosystem that serves all.

Our values

Agile leadership

We know that the world is constantly evolving and that we must listen, learn, and adapt in order to lead at the forefront of the open movement toward positive, global change.

Global inclusivity

The open movement is made up of a multitude of diverse communities and we strive to play our part in accessible, open-minded, collaborative and inclusive ways.

Informed intention

We believe we must take care with the work that we do, and we strive to act with integrity, accountability, insight and humility.