At a glance¶
- 1998: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA
- 1999-2002: Lawrence Lessig led a team representing Eldred v. Ashcroft
- 2001: Lawrence Lessig founded the Creative Commons[^2]
- 2002 (December): Lawrence Lessig published the Creative Commons licenses [^3]
- 2019: close to 2 billion content licensed under a Creative Commons License [^2]
- 2024: 2.5 billion work licensed under a Creative Commons license
More details¶
CTEA¶
As a result of this act, the copyright term was extended to the creator's life plus 70 years[^1]. Lawrence Lessig considered this unconstitutional. The timing of the CTEA also coincides with the expiration of copyright for Mickey Mouse, and Disney was known to be a sponsor of the CTEA.
Eldred v. Ashcroft[^5]¶
Eric Eldred, the plaintiff of this case, argued that the CTEA is unconstitutional because it retroactively extended the copyright of some work. The complaint was filed in 1999. Ultimately, in early 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the CTEA.
However, because of the outcome of this case, Lawrence Lessig adopted a strategy that works within the confines of existing copyright laws when he created the Creative Commons licenses.
Creative Commons¶
A non-profit organization founded by Lawrence Lessig and Eric Eldred in 2001. Originally, the organization aimed to counter and resist the conventional restrictive copyright practice. However, the organization eventually found a way to use existing copyright laws to promote the free sharing of content.
As an organization, Creative Commons created the Creative Common Licenses that, while working within the confines of existing copyright laws, also help promote the open sharing and remix culture.
Creative Commons License¶
While there are many variations of the Creative Commons License, the essence is the permission for others to share, use, and modify. In this sense, the Creative Common licenses are similar to open-source licenses. Creative Common licenses may have one or more of the following attributes:
- ⊜ND: no derivation
- 🄍CC0: no right reserved
- 🄎SA: share alike (infectious license)
- 🄏NC: Non-Commercial
- 🅮: public domain
- 🅯BY: Attribution.
There are seven combinations[^4] of these attributes. These licenses become the technical foundation to support the open-sharing and remixing movement.
Getting involved¶
Using Creative Commons licenses¶
For people who want to share their creations, using Creative Commons licenses helps to improve the visibility of Creative Commons. This serves two important purposes. First, more people who want to share their creations become aware of Creative Commons. Second, the shared content is legally treated as the content creator desires.
Financially supporting Creative Commons¶
As with most non-profit organizations, Creative Commons benefits from financial contributions from individuals and organizations.
Advocate and Network¶
Creative Commons Global Network is a digital global community of individuals who work together to continue the share and remix culture, as well as the basic principles behind Creative Commons licenses.
[^1]: Copyright Term Extension Act (Wikipedia) CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed [^2]: Creative Commons (Wikipedia) CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed [^3]: Creative Commons license (Wikipedia) CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed [^4]: Creative Commons license - Types of licenses (Wikipedia) CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed [^5]: Eldred v. Ashcroft (Wikipedia) CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensed