List of major Creative Commons licensed works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of notable works available under a Creative Commons license. Works available under a Creative Commons license are becoming more common. Note that there are multiple Creative Commons licenses with important differences.

Number of Creative Commons works
An analysis in November 2014 revealed that the amount of CC-licensed works in major databases and searchable via Google sums up to 882 million works. Nine million webpages linking to one of the CC licenses.[1]
Platform name | Number of works (rounded down by millions, November 2014) | Source |
---|---|---|
Flickr | 307 million | https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ |
Wikipedia (all pages in all languages) | 111 million | http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias |
MusicBrainz | 39 million | https://musicbrainz.org/statistics https://musicbrainz.org/doc/About/Data_License |
Freebase | 39 million | https://developers.google.com/freebase/faq#how_big_is_freebase |
DeviantArt | 15 million | https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/35540 |
GeoNames | 10 million | http://www.geonames.org/about.html |
YouTube | 10 million | Source at YouTube |
Google Search | 301 million | google-currenttools.csv, google-retiredtools.csv |
Creative Commons offers also a search engine for major databases as: Europeana, Open Clip Art Library, Pixabay, ccMixter and more.[2]
Governments and intergovernmental organizations
As of January 2016[update], 31 governments and 7 intergovernmental organizations have made their information available per CC according to creativecommons.org;[3] similarly dozens of organizations from the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums).[4]
Books
Summarize
Perspective
Creative Commons maintains a book list themselves.
Name | Original release | CC Release | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Art of Unix Programming | 2003 | 2005[5] | book about the history and culture of Unix programming by Eric S. Raymond (with added proviso) | CC BY-ND 1.0 | [6] |
A Briefer History of Time | 1999 | 2004[7] | science humor book by Eric Schulman | CC BY-ND-NC 1.0 | |
Archimedes Palimpsest | 3rd century BC | 2008 | reconstructed and released by OPenn as Free Cultural Works | CC BY | [8][9][10] |
Free Culture | 2004 | by Lawrence Lessig (the first CC licensed book released by a major mainstream publisher, Penguin Books) | CC BY-NC 1.0[11] | ||
Freesouls | 2008 | 2010 (digital ebook) | book with essays and photos of key people of the free movement by Joi Ito | CC BY[12] | |
The Future of Ideas | 2001 | 2001 | by Lawrence Lessig (originally published by Random House) | CC BY-NC[11] | |
The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It | 2008 | book by Jonathan Zittrain which discusses several legal issues regarding the Internet | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | ||
The Honour of the Knights | 2009 | 2009 | A science fiction novel by Stephen J Sweeney | CC BY-NC-SA | |
Meat Atlas | 2014 | 2014 | A collection of graphs and 27 essays on meat consumption and production by Friends of the Earth and Heinrich Böll Foundation | CC BY-SA | [13] |
Move Under Ground | 2004 | A horror novel mashup by Nick Mamatas | CC BY-NC-ND | [14] | |
The New Hacker's Dictionary | 2003 (v4.4.7 by ESR) | 2005 | by Eric S. Raymond (with added proviso) | [which?] | |
Warbreaker | 2004 | 2004 | by Brandon Sanderson | CC BY-NC-ND | [15] |
Little Brother | 2008 | 2008 | by Cory Doctorow | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | [16] |
Open Access | 2012 | 2012 | by Peter Suber (published by MIT Press) | CC BY | |
Blindsight | 2006 | by Peter Watts | CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 | [17] | |
Code: Version 2.0 | 2006 | by Lawrence Lessig dedicated to Wikipedia: "the one surprise that teaches us more than everything here."[18] | CC BY-SA 2.5 | [19] | |
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy | 2008 | by Lawrence Lessig in describing the remix culture | CC BY-NC | [20][21] | |
The Wealth of Networks | 2006 | 2006 | by Yochai Benkler | CC BY-NC-SA | [22] |
Stranger Things Happen | 2001 | 2005 | short horror stories by Kelly Link, Salon Book of the Year | CC BY-NC-SA | [23][24][25] |
Comics
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Bunny | by Huw Davies | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | |
Diesel Sweeties | by Richard Stevens III | CC BY-NC 2.5 | |
Erfworld | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | ||
Gaia | by Oliver Knörzer and Puri Andini | CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 | [26] |
Homem-Grilo | by Cadu Simões (pt) | CC BY-SA-4.0 | [27][28] |
Jesus and Mo | religious satire webcomic by Mohammed Jones | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | |
Johnny Wander | (the book publication form) | [which?] | [29] |
Mimi & Eunice | by Nina Paley | CC BY-SA 3.0 | |
Overcompensating | CC BY-NC 3.0 | ||
Pepper&Carrot | by David Revoy | CC BY 4.0 | |
Sandra and Woo | by Oliver Knörzer and Puri Andini | CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 | [30] |
Seedfeeder's works for Wikipedia | by Seedfeeder | CC BY-SA 3.0, public domain | |
xkcd | by Randall Munroe | CC BY-NC 2.5 | [31] |
Educational resources
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Connexions | academic course modules, hosted by Rice University | CC BY | |
Khan Academy | CC BY-NC-SA | ||
OpenLearn | Short articles, videos and extracts of courses maintained by The Open University | CC BY-NC-SA | |
OpenCourseWare | CC BY-NC-SA | ||
Saylor Academy | Peer-reviewed college courses and textbooks | CC BY | |
WikiEducator | CC BY-SA (default), CC BY, and CC0 | ||
Project Euler | Site hosting computer programming problems | CC BY-NC-SA |
Games
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Cards Against Humanity | An adult party game using custom-printed cards | CC BY-NC-SA | [32] |
Dungeons & Dragons System Reference Document 5.1 | The core rules of a popular fantasy role-playing game | CC BY 4.0 | [33] |
Eclipse Phase | A transhuman science fiction role-playing game | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | [34] |
Tagmar | The first Brazilian fantasy role-playing game fully developed in Brazil | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Brasil | [35] |
Violence | A heavily satirical role-playing game inspired by excessive violence in other role-playing games and video games | CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 | [36] |
Secret Hitler | A social deduction party game set in the Weimar Republic | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
Video games
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead | ASCII graphic rogue like | Artwork and code under CC BY-SA | |
Castle Crashers | One of the soundtracks of a proprietary game released under Creative Commons | CC BY-NC-SA | [37] |
Glest / MegaGlest | A real-time strategy computer game in a fantasy setup. | Artwork under CC BY-SA | |
Glitch | An MMO. In 2013, most of the artwork and parts of the code were released under a Creative Commons license. | CC0 | [38][39] |
Mari0 | Super Mario clone mashup with Portal | CC BY-NC-SA | |
OpenClonk (formerly Clonk) | A computer game originally developed by RedWolf Design, later opened to the community. | Artwork under CC BY / CC BY-NC | |
Ryzom | Ryzom is a free and open source software PC MMORPG. Originally developed and released 2004 by Nevrax, since 2010 the source code is under the AGPL[40] and the artistic work is under CC BY-SA.[41] | Artwork under CC BY-SA. | [41] |
Sintel The Game | A game based on the Blender Foundation movie, Sintel. | CC BY | |
The Adventures of Fatman | point and click adventure game | CC-SA-NC-ND | |
Tyrian (now OpenTyrian) | Scrolling shooter | graphic assets under CC BY 3.0 US[42][43] | |
The Ur-Quan Masters (formerly Star Control II) | Action RPG | Artwork under CC BY-NC-SA | [44] |
Yo Frankie! | A game resulting from a cooperation between the Blender Foundation and the Crystal Space community | Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution | [45] |
Images and photos
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
deviantART | image artwork sharing website | various (15 million CC licensed) | [46] |
Flickr | user photo uploading and sharing service | various CC licenses (350 million CC images of 6+ billion images[47][48]) | |
Mapillary | Over 30 million free photos | CC BY-SA | |
Metropolitan Museum of Art | paintings and artworks | CC0 (375.000) | [49] |
Mushroom Observer | collaborative amateur mycology database with approx. 600,000 observational photos[50][51] | CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA [52] | |
Open Game Art | Media repository for software / game projects | CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, others | [53] |
Panoramio | Over 100 million photos | Various | [54] |
Fortepan | archival photographs, and family snapshots of everyday life | CC BY-SA (100.000 images) | |
Unsplash | user photo uploading and sharing service | CC0 prior to 5 June 2017 | [55][56] |
Wikimedia Commons | free image and data repository, stores Wikipedia images | various free CC licenses (40+ million images in 2018[57]) | |
Music
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Airports for Music | By SheedyJaye | CC BY 3.0 | [58] |
ccMixter | Community music website | mostly CC BY-NC | |
Free Music Archive | Various | ||
Freesound | CC0, CC BY, CC BY-NC and Sampling Plus | ||
Ghosts I–IV | By Nine Inch Nails | CC BY-NC-SA | [59] |
#hot111 Charts | By starfrosch | CC BY CC BY-SA | [60] |
Jamendo | Various | ||
Ninjam | Music files/archive | CC BY-SA | |
Palm Mall | By Cat System Corp. | CC BY 3.0 | [61] |
Pulse of the Earth | By Hungry Lucy | CC BY-SA | [62] |
The Slip | By Nine Inch Nails | CC BY-NC-SA | [63][59] |
Jonathan Coulton | Jonathon Coulton's works | CC BY-NC 3.0 | [64] |
Paul and Storm | Paul and Storm's works | CC 2.5 By Attribution NonCommercial and ShareAlike | |
Open Goldberg Variations | CC0[65] | ||
Cloudkicker | By Ben Sharp | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 |
News
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Al Jazeera's broadcasting footage | On January 13, 2009, some broadcasting content from Al Jazeera on the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict was released. | CC BY 3.0 | [66][67][68][69][70][71] |
Agência Pública | Online Investigative Journalism outlet with texts in Portuguese, English and Spanish. | CC BY-ND 4.0 | [72][73] |
Corbeau News Centrafrique | French-language news site from the Central African Republic | CC BY-SA 4.0 | [74] |
Democracy Now! | Internationally syndicated radio and TV news program. All transcripts from broadcasts are republished online and released under a Creative Commons license. | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 US | [75] |
The Conversation | Online news outlet written by academics and researchers. Localised editions exist for Australia, Africa, Canada, France, Indonesia, the UK and the US. | CC BY-ND 4.0 | [75] |
Deshabhimani | Malayalam language newspaper | CC BY 4.0 | [76] |
Global Voices | International journalism organisation publishing in over 40 languages. | CC BY 3.0 | [77] |
The Haitian Times | Online newspaper for the Haitian diaspora in the United States. | CC BY-ND 4.0 | |
La Stampa | 3rd biggest newspaper of Italy. | CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 | [78] |
openDemocracy | International online news website. Specific articles are released under a Creative Commons license. | CC BY-NC 4.0 | [79] |
ProPublica | US news website. | CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 | [80] |
Tasnim News Agency | Iranian news agency publishing in Persian, English, Arabic, Turkish and Urdu. | CC BY 4.0 | [81] |
TorrentFreak | News blog. Text licensed under a Creative Commons license. | CC BY-NC 3.0 | [82] |
WikiTribune | News website with crowdsourced fact-checking, proofreading and editing. Published in English and Spanish. | CC BY or CC BY-SA 4.0 | [83] |
Knowledge, research and science
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Copernicus Publications | CC BY | ||
Citizendium | a wiki encyclopedia | CC BY-SA | |
Cliodynamics | Research | CC BY 4.0 | |
Knol | Website for personal essays. Went offline on May 1, 2012, but was archived on the Internet Archive[84] | mostly CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA | |
PLOS One | CC BY |
Databases and data
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
OpenSeaMap | CC SA-BY 2.0 / ODbL | [85] | |
OpenStreetMap | Until September 2012; switched to ODbL | CC BY-SA 2.0 for certain content | [86][87][88] |
SNPedia | Database of single nucleotide polymorphisms | CC BY-NC-SA | [89] |
Technology, blueprints and recipes
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Arduino | CC BY-SA | ||
DragonBox Pyra | pre-release schematics released in November 2016 | CC BY-NC-SA | [90] |
Free Beer | In December 2004 brewing recipe, brand and label artwork released under CC by Superflex and students of the IT University of Copenhagen | CC BY-SA | [91] |
Openmoko Neo Freerunner | CAD, schematics etc. files in 2008 | CC BY-SA 3.0 | [92][93] |
Video and film
Summarize
Perspective
Creative Commons maintains a film list themselves.
Name | Description | License | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Big Buck Bunny | Product of the second Blender Foundation Open Movie Project, released in 2008. | BY | [94] |
Code Rush | 2000 documentary of Netscape's last year as an independent company, focusing on the rush to make Mozilla's source code ready for its release deadline.[95] | BY-NC-SA 3.0 US | [96] |
The Yes Men Fix the World | English language documentary film about the culture jamming exploits of The Yes Men. | CC BY-NC-ND | [97] |
Decay | Zombie film made at CERN | CC BY-NC | [98] |
Elephants Dream | Product of the first Blender Foundation Open Movie Project, released in 2006 | CC BY | [99] |
Working Slowly (Radio Alice) | 2004 Italian drama directed by Guido Chiesa. | CC BY-NC-SA | |
"Life Wasted" | by Pearl Jam in 2006, first music video from a major record label to be CC licensed | CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 | [100] |
Nasty Old People | A 2009 film in Swedish by Hanna Sköld | CC BY-NC-SA | |
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto | a 2008 open-source documentary film about "the changing concept of copyright" and the remix culture[101][102] directed by Brett Gaylor | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0[103] | |
Sita Sings the Blues | feature-length animated film by free culture activist Nina Paley | CC0 | [104] |
Sanctuary | A re-mixable Science fiction film | [which?] | |
Sintel | Product of the third Blender Foundation Open Movie Project, released in 2010 | [which?] | |
Star Wreck | Amateur movie parodies of Star Trek and Babylon 5 (in Finnish) | [which?] | |
Tears of Steel | The fourth Blender Foundation Open Movie Project, released in September 2012. | CC BY | |
Where are the Joneses? | online sitcom (series) | CC BY-SA |
Websites
Name | Description | License | Alexa Rankings [105] | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anatomography | CC BY-SA | |||
Association for Progressive Communications | CC BY-SA | |||
Bangladesh Fisheries Information Share Home | CC BY-NC-ND | [106] | ||
Boing Boing | Popular blog | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (most) | ||
Devopedia | An open community platform for developers by developers to explain technology in a simple, clear and unopinionated way. | CC BY-SA 4.0 (non-code content) | [107] | |
Fandom | Since June 2009 | CC BY-SA | ||
Identi.ca | CC BY | |||
Internet Archive | Various | 170 | ||
gnu.org | Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License | |||
Mozilla website | Home of the Mozilla Project | CC BY-SA | 166 | |
RationalWiki | CC BY-SA | [108] | ||
SCP Foundation | The SCP Wiki is a collaborative urban fantasy writing website about the fictional SCP Foundation, a secretive organization that contains anomalous or supernatural items and entities away from the eyes of the public.[109] | CC BY-SA | [109] | |
Stack Overflow | CC BY-SA | 57 | ||
The Public Domain Review | Online journal showcasing public domain works. | CC BY-SA (unquoted text in collection posts and articles only) | [110] | |
Uncyclopedia | Satirical online encyclopedia. | CC BY-NC-SA | [111] | |
Wikimedia projects including Wikipedia | Since June 2009; over 80 million items | Text CC BY-SA (plus GFDL in most cases); some in CC BY and CC-0; hosted content also in public domain and various licenses. | [112][113] | |
Wikitravel | CC BY-SA |
References
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