What is Creative Commons: A Brief History

The Copyright Act of 1976

The Copyright Act of 1976 is a United States copyright law and remains the primary basis of copyright law in the United States, as amended by several later enacted copyright provisions. The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, codified the doctrine of "fair use," and for most new copyrights adopted a unitary term based on the date of the author's death rather than the prior scheme of fixed initial and renewal terms.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

"Musical Jubilee" closes at St James Theater NYC after 92 performances.

Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA)

The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) was enacted in 1998.

It extended the term of copyright for every work in the United States—even those already published—for an additional 20 years, so the copyright term equaled the life of the creator plus 70 years.

Under this Act, works made in 1923 or afterward that were still protected by copyright in 1998 will not enter the public domain until 2019 or later. 

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Helmut Kohl resigns as Chancellor of Germany after 16 years, following a landslide defeat in elections.

Eldred v. Ashcroft

Lawrence Lessig represented a web publisher, Eric Eldred, who had made a career of making works available as they passed into the public domain. Together, they challenged the constitutionality of the Act. The case, known as Eldred v. Ashcroft, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The original complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on January 11, 1999. The plaintiffs' argument was threefold:

1. That by retroactively extending copyright terms, Congress had violated the requirements of the Constitution's Copyright Clause.
2. That any copyright law must be subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment, thereby ensuring a balance between freedom of speech and the interests of copyright.
3. That the doctrine of public trust requires the government to show a public benefit to any transfer of public property into private hands.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

26th American Music Awards: Celine Dion & Eric Clapton win.

Eldred v. Ashcroft - arguments rejected

Eldred v. Ashcroft

Judge June Green issued a brief opinion rejecting all three of the petitioners' arguments:

1. On the first count, she wrote that Congress had the power to extend terms as it wished, as long as the terms themselves were of limited duration.
2. On the second count, she rejected the notion of First Amendment scrutiny in copyright cases, based on her interpretation of Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., v. Nation Enterprises, an earlier Supreme Court decision.
3. On the third count, she rejected the notion that public trust doctrine was applicable to copyright law.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Robert Linn, American composer, dies at 72.

Creative Commons is founded

The organization was founded by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred, with the support of Center for the Public Domain.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Steve Gromek, American baseball player, dies.

First article about Creative Commons

The first article in a general interest publication about Creative Commons, written by Hal Plotkin, was published. 

"In a boon to the arts and the software industry, Creative Commons will make available flexible, customizable intellectual-property licenses that artists, writers, programmers and others can obtain free of charge to legally define what constitutes acceptable uses of their work. The new forms of licenses will provide an alternative to traditional copyrights by establishing a useful middle ground between full copyright control and the unprotected public domain."

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Barry Foster, British actor, dies.

First set of CC licenses

Creative Commons publishes a first set of free, public licenses that would allow creators to keep their copyrights while sharing their works on more flexible terms than the default "all rights reserved".

The idea behind CC licensing was to create an easy way for creators who wanted to share their works in ways that were consistent with copyright law.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

68th Heisman Trophy Award: Carson Palmer, USC (QB).

Eldred v. Ashcroft - Court reaches decision

Eldred v. Ashcroft

The Court held the CTEA constitutional by a 7–2 decision.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Ginsburg, relied heavily on the Copyright Acts of 1790, 1831, 1909, and 1976 as precedent for retroactive extensions.

One of the arguments supporting the act was the life expectancy has significantly increased among the human population since the 18th century, and therefore copyright law needed extending as well.

However, the major argument for the act that carried over into the case was that the Constitution specified that Congress only needed to set time limits for copyright, the length of which was left to their discretion. Thus, as long as the limit is not "forever," any limit set by Congress can be deemed constitutional.

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Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter, dies at 87.

1 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 1 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Australian pop diva Natalie Imbruglia (28) weds "Silverchair" frontman Daniel Johns (24) at a beach ceremony in Port Douglas, Australia.

Second set of CC licenses

Creative Commons publishes the second set (2.0) of free, public licenses that would allow creators to keep their copyrights while sharing their works on more flexible terms than the default "all rights reserved".

What's new:

• Attribution (BY) comes standard, due to the huge success of the CC BY license;
• A licensor may require that licensees, to fulfill their attribution requirement, provide a link back to the licensor’s work;
• The new licenses clarify when licensees may or may not synchronize musical CC’d works in timed-relation with a moving image;
• Other music-specific rights clarified;
• Warranties? Up to licensors;
• Nifty new Some Rights Reserved button.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Thom Gunn, British poet (b. 1929), dies.

4,7 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 4,7 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).

Science Commons is launched

Science Commons was launched with the goal of bringing the openness and sharing that have made Creative Commons licenses a success in the arts and cultural fields to the world of science. Science Commons helped explore the intersection of the web, legal tools, and scholarly publishing for the benefit of scientific discovery, innovation, and collaboration.

It has since been re-integrated with Creative Commons and is no longer a discrete project.

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91st Rose Bowl: #6 Texas beats #13 Michigan, 38-37.

20 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 20 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Olympic gold medal skater Jamie Sale (28) weds her pair figure skater David Pelletier (31) at Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Canada.

Scholar’s Copyright Project launched

Creative Commons launched its Scholar’s Copyright Project with one of the main components being the Scholar’s Copyright Addendum Engine. This tool provided a simple mechanism for scholars to retain copyright over their published material that otherwise would be transferred to the publisher.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

NHL Eastern Conference Final: Carolina Hurricanes beat Buffalo Sabres, 4 games to 3.

50 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 50 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Actor Robert Lindsay (57) weds actress and TV presenter Rosemarie Ford (44) at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.

Third set of CC licenses

Creative Commons publishes the third set (3.0) of free, public licenses that would allow creators to keep their copyrights while sharing their works on more flexible terms than the default "all rights reserved".

What's new:

• Separating the “generic” from the US license;
• Harmonizing the treatment of moral rights & collecting society royalties;
• No Endorsement Language;
• BY-SA — Compatibility Structure Now Included;
• Clarifications Negotiated With Debian & MIT.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Thom Gunn, British poet (b. 1929), dies.

The bus stop teen image

Virgin Mobile Australia launched a bus stop advertising campaign which promoted its mobile phone text messaging service using the work of amateur photographers who uploaded their work to the photo-sharing site Flickr using a Creative Commons by Attribution license.

One picture depicted 15-year-old Alison Chang posing for a photo at her church's fund-raising carwash, with the superimposed, mocking slogan "Dump Your Pen Friend". Chang sued Virgin Mobile and Creative Commons. The photo was taken by Chang's church youth counsellor, Justin Ho-Wee Wong, who uploaded the image to Flickr under the Creative Commons license.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

"The Big Bang Theory" created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady premieres on CBS.

90 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 90 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.

Nine Inch Nails album released under CC

Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV, a collection of 36 new instrumental tracks that are available to the world under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

"This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something."

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Riots in Yerevan, Armenia concerning the Armenian presidential election, 2008 come to a fatal end, with police forces clashing with civilians in their peaceful protest, resulting in 8 deaths.

Lawrence Lessig steps down as CEO

Lawrence Lessig is stepping down as CEO of Creative Commons, to focus on his newly-launched project, Change Congress.

He will be replaced by entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and free culture advocate Joi Ito. Lessig will remain on the Creative Commons board.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Finland's Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva is forced to resign after a scandal involving 200 text messages sent to a stripper.

130 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 130 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Former American Idol finalist Gina Glocksen (24) weds teacher Joe Ruzicka (32) at the Century Memorial Chapel at Naperville Settlement in Naperville, Illinois.

CC0 launched

CC0 (read “CC Zero”) is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain.

CC0 is not a license, but a legal tool that improves on the “dedication” function of our existing, U.S.-centric public domain dedication and certification.

CC0 is universal in form and may be used throughout the world for any kind of content without adaptation to account for laws in different jurisdictions. And like our licenses, CC0 has the benefit of being expressed in three ways – legal code, a human readable deed, and machine-readable code that allows works distributed under CC0 to be easily found.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Winnenden school shooting - 17 people are killed at a school in Germany.

Wikipedia migrates to CC BY-SA

The Wikipedia community and Wikimedia Foundation board approved the adoption of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license as the main content license for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites.

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British hostage freed in Iraq.

350 million works licensed under CC

Approximately 350 million licenses in use.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

British hostage freed in Iraq.

Fourth set of CC licenses

Creative Commons publishes the fourth set (4.0) of free, public licenses that would allow creators to keep their copyrights while sharing their works on more flexible terms than the default "all rights reserved". These are the first official translations.

What's new:

• A more global license - the new licenses have improved terminology that’s better understood worldwide;
• Rights outside the scope of copyright - the 4.0 license suite uniformly and explicitly waives moral rights held by the licensor where possible to the limited extent necessary to enable reuse of the content in the manner intended by the license;
• Common-sense attribution;
• Enabling more anonymity, when desired;
• 30-day window to correct license violations;
• Increased readability;
• Clarity about adaptations.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Due to a street tirade captured on video, Alec Baldwin's show "Up Late with Alec Baldwin" is cancelled after only five episodes.

Asking for the release of Bassel Khartabil

The Creative Commons Board of Directors approved a resolution calling for Bassel Khartabil's release. In 2017, Bassel's wife received confirmation that Bassel had been executed shortly after she lost contact with him in 2015.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Amy Schumer's comedy special "Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo" premieres on HBO.

CC Global Network launches

The Creative Commons Global Network replaces the Affiliates Network. The Global Network is the home for a community of advocates, activists, scholars, artists, and users working to strengthen the Commons worldwide.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

California becomes largest US state to legalise cannabis for recreational use.

1.4 billion works licensed under CC

As of May 2018 there were an estimated 1.4 billion works licensed under the various Creative Commons licenses. Wikipedia uses one of these licenses. As of May 2018, Flickr alone hosts over 415 million Creative Commons licensed photos.

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

Scotland is the first country in the world to introduce a minimum price on alcohol.

CC Certificate program launched

The Certificate is an in-depth course about CC licenses, open practices and the ethos of the Commons. The course is composed of readings, quizzes, discussions and practical exercises to develop learners’ open skills.

This course is open to everyone, from university students and entry-level professionals to experts in the fields of library science and education (more fields forthcoming).

ON THIS DAY ON EARTH...

US President Trump appears to accept word of Russian President Putin over US intelligence services in meddling in US 2016 election, in interview at summit in Helsinki.