Introduction

How can equitable access to heritage help solve global challenges? That is the question we addressed during our Exploratory Dialogue, a major event we hosted on 29 April, 2026, at UNESCO House in Paris, France, to celebrate the Open Heritage Statement and explore its synergies with UNESCO’s priorities in tackling the most urgent problems facing the world today. 

In this blog post, we set the event in its wider context, look back at some of the highlights from the discussions, report on our key takeaways, and pave the way for what comes next. 

The Dialogue in Context

This Dialogue was the culmination of years of research and consultations, policy analysis, movement building, and community mobilization, as well as global advocacy efforts towards more equitable access to public domain heritage in the digital environment. You can read more about the journey that took us from shared vision to global action. A remarkable milestone, the Dialogue brought together over 100 participants, including UNESCO staff, Permanent Delegation representatives, National Commissions, cultural heritage practitioners, funders, and open heritage advocates and enthusiasts from around the world.

Our aim by convening this Dialogue was twofold. It was an opportune moment to recognize the joint efforts of the Open Heritage Coalition and its global network of ambassadors in elaborating the Open Heritage Statement, a declaration of principles anchored in our shared belief in the positive potential of equitable access to heritage. This event was dedicated to the hard work, energy, and collaborative spirit that turned shared ideals into a tangible plea to fill an enormous international policy gap. Indeed, despite open heritage’s clear potential for achieving UNESCO’s key policy objectives, there are still multiple undue, unfair barriers to access to heritage in the public domain, and the Coalition was convinced that greater awareness, mobilization, and political will were needed among UNESCO Member States. 

Hence the Dialogue was also a favorable occasion to explore how access to heritage in all its forms can make a significant contribution to achieving UNESCO’s mandate of addressing global challenges. Specifically, it was a critical opportunity to sensitize UNESCO stakeholders to the relevance of the Open Heritage Statement as a foundation for further discussions across diverse areas of UNESCO’s mandate and in a cross-sectoral, transversal approach, spanning areas of heritage protection, preservation, and sharing, of course, but also access to education, to the fight against climate change, all the way to artistic creativity and cultural diversity, social inclusion, ethical artificial intelligence, and more. 

Key Takeaways

The discussion brought together diverse experts from across the world and showcased various real-life examples in which equitable access to public domain heritage can make a positive impact in many of UNESCO’s priorities, in line with its mandate and in support of the fundamental right to participate in cultural life. Their perspectives helped us understand how access to heritage is vital in the digital environment as well as how unfair barriers keep impeding such access.

For more information, you can see the full program, read the detailed summary of each session, and watch the full video recording in English and French.

A resounding message united these interventions into a coherent narrative: there is an urgent need to lower the barriers that unfairly hamper access and prevent us from sustaining resilient and connected societies. Open heritage is a means to advance cultural policy goals aiming to remove unfair socio-economic barriers to access to heritage in the digital environment, in accordance, notably, with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Global collective action is now more important than ever, because without global policy alignment, the full potential of open heritage remains largely unrealized.

Future Outlook: From Dialogue to Recommendation 

Sign the Open Heritage Statement

We are very proud of what the Open Heritage Coalition has accomplished. Well before its deadline, it reached its objectives of developing the Open Heritage Statement alongside a comprehensive advocacy strategy and campaign. As our movement evolves into its next phase, the Coalition is no longer accepting new members. As the new anchor point in this dynamic initiative, we encourage organizations and institutions to sign the Open Heritage Statement and join the momentum built by close to 100 signatories to date in order to show broad alignment and global support. To add your voice to the call, visit openheritagestatement.org and sign the Statement today. 

Explore the Feasibility of an Open Heritage Recommendation

We call on UNESCO Member States to join the dialogue towards additional action by UNESCO to ensure equitable access to public domain heritage in the digital environment, possibly even by co-creating a new normative instrument, in accordance with UNESCO’s existing normative framework. Recently, UNESCO has demonstrated a strong commitment to open through the 2019 Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) and the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science. These recommendations were game changers. A UNESCO Recommendation on Open Heritage would be the next logical step.

To achieve this, UNESCO Member States should explore the feasibility of elaborating a standard-setting instrument (a Recommendation) that would proactively promote and encourage open solutions to removing barriers to accessing heritage in the public domain, being mindful of the various governance frameworks that determine the ways in which heritage is shared and used. 

We believe this Dialogue, and new initiatives to be taken in its wake, will further strengthen cooperation between UNESCO and Creative Commons, harnessing the obvious synergies and setting the stage for international discussions aiming to consolidate best practices and enshrine our common aspiration: ensuring equitable access to heritage.

The post How can Equitable Access to Heritage Help Solve Global Challenges? An Exploratory Dialogue appeared first on Creative Commons.

It’s been a while since we last shared an update on CC signals and our work around AI and the commons. Over the past several months, we’ve been deep in research, in conversation, and in active collaboration with communities, policymakers, and practitioners. At the same time, we kicked off our 25th anniversary celebrations, which gives us a rare opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been and, more importantly, where we need to go next.

The biggest reason for the gap between updates is timing. We are deliberately resisting the pressure to move quickly simply because the broader technology landscape rewards speed. Our work touches the infrastructure of the commons. That requires care, consultation, and a willingness to sit with complexity.

So we slowed down. We let the first wave of AI development crest without rushing to respond. We took the time to understand where power is consolidating, where harms are emerging, and where meaningful intervention is actually possible. We are now at a point where we believe we can act in ways that will have real impact.

This post is meant to bring you into that journey. Our destination has not changed, but the path we are taking to get there has. Come along!

From Signals to Agency

When we first introduced CC signals, the idea was relatively straightforward. We proposed a set of preferences that creators could use to communicate with AI developers, relying on shared norms to guide behavior. It reflected how CC has historically operated. For 25 years, we have worked within copyright, building tools that expand access while maintaining a balance between creators and reusers. That history shaped our instincts. We assumed that a carefully calibrated, norms-based approach would move the ecosystem in a better direction.

But as we began consulting with our community, it became clear that this approach was not enough. The feedback was direct and consistent in stating that preference signals without enforcement do not meaningfully shift power. Signals alone cannot create agency in a system that many people did not choose to participate in. 

That feedback forced us to confront some of our own assumptions. For a long time, copyright has been our primary tool, and with good reason. CC licenses have enabled the sharing of tens of billions of works and have helped build a more open internet. But relying on copyright as the default lens for every problem has its limits, especially in an AI-mediated environment. 

Beyond Copyright

Over the past four months, we have been reexamining what it means to support the commons in this new context. 

CC licenses remain essential. They will continue to play a critical role in enabling human access to knowledge. However, when it comes to AI, copyright operates in a landscape that is uneven and often unclear. In many cases, CC license conditions do not apply to AI training. In others, they might. In some jurisdictions, broad exceptions mean that using CC-licensed works for AI development is lawful regardless of license conditions. At the same time, the presence of a CC license is often interpreted as permission to use the work in this way. That interpretation follows from how the licenses were designed; they grant broad permissions with limited conditions. 

The CC licenses were not designed with the scale and growing harms caused by the dominant, profit-driven approaches to AI in mind. And CC licenses do not capture the full range of intentions creators have in this AI-mediated world. Some creators are comfortable with their work being used in AI systems; others are not, and many fall somewhere in between.

Why New Tools Are Necessary

We also explored whether updating the CC licenses themselves, in the current paradigm, could provide a solution. Versioning has helped us adapt to new contexts before. But in this case, there are two novel factors at play.

The first is structural. CC licenses were designed not to enable control beyond copyright. They are intentionally scoped to copyright and related rights, and they explicitly do not allow additional restrictions that would limit uses outside that scope.

Our current trademark policy reinforces this. If restrictions are added that limit the permissions granted by a CC license, the work can no longer be presented as CC-licensed. This reflects the critical role that standardization has played in the success of open licensing. When you access a CC-licensed work, you should be able to rely on the terms and conditions written in the license to determine what your reuse obligations are. Expanding the CC license suite beyond its original focus on copyright would represent a significant change to how the licenses operate, and it could have unintended consequences on the existing license ecosystem.

This brings us to the second factor, which is that CC licensors have such a wide spectrum of needs and values about how and whether their works are used in AI. It is possible that new tooling would better address what may be irreconcilable within the open movement: some see any tool that attempts to control AI uses that fall outside of copyright as a betrayal; others see it as an imperative.

With the future of the commons in mind, at this time we believe that the best approach is to innovate with the development of new tools, where we can test and explore more freely. The CC licenses are one part of a larger strategy needed to meet this moment, which is evolving in an undefined legal landscape, just as it was 25 years ago when the CC licenses were first developed. 

The Stakes for the Commons

Our north star remains the same: sustain access to human knowledge. Today, that means more than enabling sharing. It means questioning long-held assumptions, and ensuring communities are in control of their own data. It means holding the tension that, in some cases, conditional access is better than no access. The commons needs guardrails in order to thrive. 

AI systems are being built on an unprecedented scale of knowledge extraction, drawing heavily from the commons. The governance systems that made open sharing possible have not kept pace with this shift. There are limited mechanisms for attribution in AI systems, few pathways for consent, and little transparency.

When the commons weakens, power over information becomes more concentrated. Knowledge moves into private datasets and proprietary systems controlled by a small number of actors. That limits who can access, verify, and build on information. Democracies depend on broad access to reliable knowledge. Public interest AI depends on diverse, high-quality data. 

A healthy commons is governed and sustained through systems that balance access with agency, openness with accountability. AI relies on the commons, not the other way around. If we want a future where knowledge is shared and where AI serves the public good, we need to ensure that the commons can thrive. This is the context in which we evolve CC signals. 

Strengthening CC Signals

Our problem statement has not changed, and neither has our end goal. But what we are building to get there has.

What began as a relatively narrow, tool-focused approach has evolved into something broader and more structural. CC signals is no longer limited to signaling preferences. CC signals is about addressing the underlying conditions that have made creator preferences so easy to ignore. This shift has led us toward work that is more ambitious, and necessarily more disruptive, in confronting the real harms to the commons emerging from dominant, profit-driven approaches to AI.

Check back with us next week, when we’ll share more about the specific interventions we are building from this foundation.

The post Update on CC Signals: What Changed and Why appeared first on Creative Commons.

Today, we are sharing our newest report, Licensing Best Practices for Sharing Scientific Data. This report builds on our 2023 report Recommended Best Practices for the Better Sharing of Climate Data with the goal of extending the open data practices originally designed for climate data to other disciplines. We are thankful to our partners at the McGovern Foundation who supported our Open Climate Data project, which paved the way for this revised and updated report. 

Why Open Licensing Matters for Data

Open data is central to accelerating scientific progress because it allows researchers everywhere to freely access, verify, combine, and build upon existing data without legal or technical barriers, dramatically increasing the speed, scale, and collaboration of discovery.

By encouraging adoption alongside those already maximizing open access to publicly funded data, our recommendations provide a baseline for globally interoperable and practical licensing and attribution practices. They make open data easier to access, share, and reuse with clear guidance and actionable steps. Consistent licensing reduces legal uncertainty, improves interoperability, and enables faster discovery and collaboration. Adopting these practices strengthens trust, transparency, and global scientific cooperation.

This updated report expands the scope of the original beyond climate while retaining the core principles around standard legal terms and metadata for maximized sharing and interoperability. The report and its summary version are resources that anyone who wants to publish open data can use and include guidance on both licensing and metadata.

The Open Climate Data Project

The 2023 Recommended Best Practices for the Better Sharing of Climate Data was created through our Open Climate Data project, which brought together global partners committed to improving the accessibility and interoperability of climate data. From deep collaboration with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) we helped strengthen the foundations for open, reusable knowledge to better share and build upon climate science across the globe.

The initial recommendations complemented existing frameworks such as the FAIR Principles, the GEO Data Sharing Principles, the WMO Unified Data Policy, and CARE Principles by filling a specific gap. The recommendations focus on open licensing clarity and embedding license information in metadata practices that support reuse, attribution, and sharing. From 2023-2025, we consulted directly with more than 30 intergovernmental, national, and academic organizations on the implementation of the recommended licenses and metadata values in their policies, platforms, and practices. 

An invaluable aspect of the Open Climate Data project was the depth and quality of the partnerships we built. Our collaboration with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) stands out in particular: as active members of the GEO Law and Policy subgroup, we were part of a truly collaborative environment, one where open sharing is not just a principle but a lived practice that directly shaped implementation of the recommendations across earth observation data producers worldwide. Our relationship with the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has been equally important. As one of the organizations consulted early in the project, the WMO played a meaningful role in strengthening our recommendations and validating our approach. In 2025, we also had the opportunity to engage in a deep and productive collaboration with the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on updating their open licensing policy, which helped 196 countries and the EU implement clear open-licensing practices for environmental data, enabling global land-degradation information to be legally reusable, interoperable, and accessible for research, policy, and climate action. Details about our partnership on the UNCCD open licensing policy can be read about in more detail in our corresponding case example.

Working in partnership with global governmental and intergovernmental producers of climate and earth observation data allowed us to further the following impact in the world:

• Making global climate data legally open and reusable, by ensuring that major climate and environmental datasets are released under clear, interoperable legal terms so they can be freely accessed, reused, and combined worldwide. 
• Standardizing interoperable licensing and attribution practices across climate data systems, by embedding consistent legal terms and attribution-based metadata values into data policies, platforms, and practices across the world’s largest institutions so their data can be reliably shared, credited, and reused. 
• Strengthening climate research, policy, and action through better data access, by reducing the legal and technical barriers so governments, scientists, and communities can more effectively study climate change and develop solutions to the growing challenges posed by the climate crisis.
• Building a durable open data infrastructure for the public good, by establishing norms that institutionalize open licensing and attribution practices across international climate data ecosystems. 

Accelerating Open Data Practices Across Scientific Disciplines 

As implementation increased with our Open Data Project partners, it became clear that across scientific domains, data producers, hosts, researchers, and institutions, there existed the same barriers: uncertainty about licensing, inconsistent metadata, unclear provenance, and friction in reuse, which result in less reuse and licenses being ignored by researchers. The Open Climate Data project was spent supporting data producers around the world with implementation of the recommendations across their policies, platforms, and practices. This work revealed a more universal need for practical, legally sound, and interoperable data sharing practices that are not limited to just climate data, in order to maximize open data sharing for other types of scientific data that are also intended to be made publicly available. The recommended metadata values for source link, license link, attribution statement, and rights were generally applicable as well. 

Because of the ongoing collaboration in testing and refining open data licensing practices with data producing organizations, we were able to further strengthen the recommendations in such a way that they are applicable across scientific disciplines.

Licensing Best Practices for Sharing Scientific Data

For a sneak peek of our licensing best practices for sharing scientific data: We recommended the use of one of two legal terms, and the use of six metadata values that keep licensing and attribution information both human- and machine-readable. 

Legal Terms Options: 

• The CC0 public domain dedication enables unrestricted reuse, which can be especially useful for foundational datasets or where reuse is a priority. We recommend attribution is requested when using the CC0 public domain dedication on your data, to ensure you are credited as its creator.
• The CC BY attribution license is recognized by global data communities as a gold standard as the least restrictive license with only one condition: attribution of you as the creator. It is the most interoperable license and the easiest to combine while controlling the license of the resulting dataset, report, or product. 

Metadata Values

• Title
• Author
• Source Link
• License Link
• Attribution Statement
• Rights Statement

Read our full report here and its summary version here. Please share these essential resources with colleagues and partners who are actively engaged in opening up scientific data in the public interest. 

If you are looking for additional support in implementing open licensing to increase the accessibility, discoverability, and use of scientific open data, we are pleased to offer a suite of consulting services. Get in touch! 

To support ongoing work in increasing open scientific data, consider making a donation.

The post Licensing Best Practices for the Sharing of Scientific Data appeared first on Creative Commons.

Gathering is a vital part of relationship building among and across movements, and we know we have supporters around the globe excited to get more involved in our work. Creative Commons has chapters around the world—communities of practice in a wide variety of topics from science and culture to open source—who are best suited to host local events that meet the contexts and needs of their communities and provide opportunities for in-person engagement.

As a part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, we are pleased to announce the launch of a small fund for two to three regional events in 2026 to amplify the contributions of CC communities over the last 25 years and showcase the amazing networks of open advocates around the world. 

Events could include panels from experts and open access organizations in your region, workshops on how to CC license your work, discussions on current events and the challenges facing our movement, and more. Organizers may want to work with local organizations, open advocates, cultural spaces, and artists to host a series of connected activities or even a multi-day event. It may even be wise to collaborate with other local events where open advocates will already be attending to add on your own gathering. For inspiration, read about the recent  CC Uruguay event.

Funding is limited. We invite CC communities globally to express interest, and we are especially interested in proposals from communities based in  Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania.

Selection Criteria

Organizers must demonstrate:

• An existing, engaged audience in the region
• A documented track record of hosting similar events
• Access to venues that can host at low cost or free of charge
• A history of open advocacy in the region, with key accomplishments that can be highlighted and shared
• A location that is reasonably accessible to others in the region (e.g., a central hub with a major airport)

Optional (nice to have):

• Established involvement in the CC community through legacy network structures

What Selected Events Receive

Two to three  proposals will be selected to receive:

• Up to $5,000 USD 
• Organizational support and visibility as part of Creative Commons’ 25th anniversary programming

How to Apply

Please email community@creativecommons.org with a brief written proposal attached as a PDF that includes:

• Your organizing team and their bios
• The proposed location and venue(s)
• Your target audience and expected reach
• A short description of the event format and goals
• An outline of how you intend to incorporate CC 25th anniversary celebrations into your event
• A draft budget for the event indicating where funds are needed
• Any relevant past events or open advocacy work

Deadline: May 31, 2026

Selections will be made by July 1. We’re excited to support community-driven regional gatherings that strengthen the open movement and build lasting local and regional connections. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to community@creativecommons.org. 

While hosting an event takes a team of established Open practitioners, there are also ways for individuals, newcomers, and more to get involved in smaller ways by attending events, participating in discussions, and spreading the word about CC’s work. Learn more about all the ways you can participate in our celebration.  

The post Call for Proposals: Regional Events Celebrating CC’s 25th Anniversary appeared first on Creative Commons.

Today, we kick off celebrations for CC’s 25th anniversary. Please join us throughout the rest of 2026 as we commemorate a quarter century of sharing. 

A Brief Reflection

When CC was founded, the internet was at an inflection point: sharing and remixing were easier than ever, but we were stuck between the black-and-white choice of copyright’s default to “all rights reserved” and “no rights reserved”. The founders of CC created the CC licenses to open space between the two, where human creativity could flourish and a shared commons of knowledge and culture could power progress and work in the public interest. Through CC’s work and the dedication of our community, CC licenses now power access to tens of billions of works online and have been used to make over half of all scientific research open and accessible.

It feels apt that after a quarter of a century, the internet would be at another inflection point. AI systems are built on vast amounts of publicly available data such as research, education materials, cultural works, and more, all shared by individuals and institutions around the world. Much of this exists because of CC licensing. However, the governance systems that enabled this sharing have not kept pace with AI. There are few mechanisms for attribution, transparency, or alignment with creators’ intentions. As a result, knowledge is being used at scale without clear accountability or reciprocity.

This creates a growing imbalance. If left unaddressed, creators may stop sharing, institutions may restrict access, and the commons will languish. This trend has already begun, and the consequences are significant: reduced access to knowledge, increased concentration of power, and weaker foundations for both democracy and AI innovation.

The good news? There is an alternative: a future where the commons thrives and remains accessible, supporting both human knowledge and responsible AI development. To get there, a few things are required:

1. Clear rules for the AI era: New norms and governance so shared knowledge isn’t simply extracted without credit, consent, or responsibility.
2. Tools that give creators agency: Ways for people and institutions to communicate how their work can be used in AI systems.
3. Transparency and attribution: Systems that recognize where knowledge comes from and who contributed it.
4. Strong public infrastructure for sharing: Legal, technical, and community systems that keep knowledge accessible while protecting trust.

The result is an AI future built on a healthy, growing commons. Remember: AI relies on the commons, not the other way around. 

For us, this is what celebrating our anniversary is about: celebrating the vital work of the past 25 years, and looking forward to the stage this work has set for the future. The CC community helped create a better internet, and now we are committed to keeping it human, to reclaiming and bringing joy and humanity to our shared digital future.

Celebrate 25 Years of Creative Commons

Throughout 2026, CC will be reflecting on CC’s legacy and envisioning the next 25 years through events, storytelling, community activities, and more. We invite you to celebrate with us—and to help shape the next chapter of the commons. We will be announcing ways to celebrate throughout the year. To get started, we invite you to:

Make a Gift

CC is a nonprofit and relies on the generosity of those who share a passion for equity, reciprocity, and openness. Help power the next 25 years of sharing with a gift today!

Make a Gift

Attend an Event

CC 101: CC History

Apr 14 | 2:00-3:00 pm EDT

Learn about the history of Creative Commons and the legal and societal contexts that led to its creation in this free virtual event.

Register

See More Events

Submit to the CC25 Zine

To commemorate our anniversary, CC is creating a zine featuring submissions from the CC community! The theme is “Remix is resistance,” and will contain creative works that reflect how remix, reuse, adaptation, and sharing challenge power, build community, preserve culture, and imagine more just futures. Submit your own work, from a poem to a photograph to a comic-style illustration!

Submit Your Work 

Buy CC Merch

Support CC in style with brand-new CC merch! Wear your love for sharing on your sleeve with a CC hat, t-shirt, tote, and more.

Shop

Share Your CC Origin Story

What got you involved in the open movement? What drew you to the CC community? Share your CC origin story or favorite memory on Zulip! Not part of the CC community? Fill out a simple form to join.

More Ways to Join

Find all the ways to celebrate along with us and help shape CC’s next 25 years on our anniversary page.

The post Celebrating 25 Years of Choosing to Share appeared first on Creative Commons.