Creative Commons

American  

noun

1. Sometimes creative commons a set of various licenses that allow people to share their copyrighted work to be copied, edited, built upon, etc., while retaining the copyright to the original work (often used attributively): a creative commons license.

   We’re happy for other sites to share these photos under Creative Commons;

   a creative commons license.

2. the nonprofit organization that releases these licenses.

---

Etymology

Origin of Creative Commons

First recorded in 2000–05

Example Sentences

Wikipedia’s information is available under a Creative Commons license—it’s freely licensed.

From Slate • Nov. 17, 2025

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

From Salon • Aug. 26, 2025

It also asserts she lifted an image without crediting the source as required by a Creative Commons license.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 8, 2024

There are already attempts at making a standardized NFT license, but so far, none have seen the kind of success Creative Commons has in the non-crypto world.

From The Verge • Sep. 6, 2022

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/ or send a letter to: Creative Commons 559 Nathan Abbott Way Stanford, California 94305, USA.

From O+F by Wetterau, John Moncure