Attribution in the Age of AI
Since 2002, Creative Commons (CC) licenses have served as legally enforceable tools for digital sharing. Beyond their functionality, they also signal a commitment to open sharing in the public interest.
CC’s general guidance has been to acknowledge and support all valid uses for each of our current six licenses and two public domain tools.
When making decisions about which CC tool to use, we’ve long encouraged licensors to share their work under the most flexible CC license or tool applicable, while recognizing that some contexts call for added restrictions. This practice fosters robust knowledge and cultural exchange, which in turn strengthens our collective commons. Access to educational, scientific, and cultural content remains essential to society.
However, that guidance was developed for a world of reuse by people, a premise that doesn’t fit as neatly in a world of widespread machine use of content through AI.
So we went back to our own guidance and asked, “Does this still hold up?”
The short answer is: yes.
You might be surprised that this guidance hasn’t substantially changed from what we’ve given in previous resources, even as AI reshapes how content and data is being used.
This full document explains how we got here and contextualizes our guidance for use of existing licenses in this new environment. Our goal is to continue to balance public access with licensor choice, providing options even in this new complex world of sharing. Recognizing that the broader legal, cultural, and technological context will continue to change, we hope this guide serves to clarify and support, in this moment, the valuable educational, cultural, and scientific work that is produced across the globe, every day.
We know that licensing alone cannot address all of the challenges to sharing that AI presents. Our broader work is about finding ways to support agency, attribution, and responsible reuse in a world where content and data can move through systems far beyond the reach of copyright licensing. This means developing new tools and practices while continuing to support a balance of open exchange of knowledge and culture to serve the public interest. CC Signals is one part of that work: a flexible, commons-friendly framework for communicating expectations around AI use of content and data. Just as our existing licenses offer choices between more and fewer rights reserved, CC Signals will offer a spectrum of options for when and how work is used in AI.
We encourage people to share openly using CC licenses and tools to help achieve their goals and values. Open sharing remains essential to the public-interest work of so many. Knowledge and culture are more valuable when people can use, learn from, build on, and share them.
We will be hosting two virtual events to share this updated guidance and how it affects different sectors like Education, Science, and Culture on October 14, 2026. We will start with a short presentation on the guidance and will then take questions from the audience and hear about any feedback you might have.
Register for Session A on October 14 from 9:30–10:30 am EDT with speakers Sarah Hinchliff Pearson, Brigitte Vézina, and Shanna Hollich.
Register for Session B on October 14 from 4–5 pm EDT with speakers Sarah Hinchliff Pearson, Monica Granados, and Shanna Hollich.
Visit the Licensing Guidance page.
Acknowledgments
The Licensing Guidance came together through the work of many across the Creative Commons staff. Special thanks the following team members: Shanna Hollich and Jennryn Wetzler for project management; Sarah Hinchliff Pearson for final synthesis; Dee Harris and Annemarie Eayrs for formatting and publishing support; Diyana Noory, Brigitte Vézina, Anna Tumadóttir, and Timid Robot Zehta for substantial contributions throughout the editing process; and Monica Granados, Taylor Campbell, and Jocelyn Miyara for providing content and guidance throughout.
Posted 03 September 2026