Before , during, and after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2003- which upheld the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act– the seeds for open access, creator rights, and individual control of the use and access of the public’s ability to view, use, or remix/ reuse were planted. Despite Eldred and Lessig’s judicial loss, Creative Commons (CC) became synonymous with supporting a digitally radical counterculture movement that objected to corporate interest monopoles in relation to proprietary copyright.
As such, beginning in 2002 CC released a Version 1.0 license that was consistent with copyright laws while empowering the individual content creator with flexible use statements. Twenty years later CC is at Version 4.0 (released in 2013), and there are six licenses as well as a Public Domain Dedication Tool. They continue to be created for public use, are free of charge for individuals to use, and continue to receive international recognition as the gold standard for copyright on the internet.
Understanding Symbols of Rights and Copyrights, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0