Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a Massachusetts-chartered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable corporation. For more information, see the corporate charter, by-laws, most recent tax return and most recent audited financial statement.

The Spectrum of Rights
Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which “all rights reserved” (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.

Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare “some rights reserved.”

Joi Ito (CEO):
Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons, and founder and CEO of Neoteny, a venture capital firm focused on personal communications and enabling technologies. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. In 1997 Time ranked him as a member of the CyberElite. In 2000 he was ranked among the “50 Stars of Asia” by Business Week and commended by the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for supporting the advancement of IT. In 2001 the World Economic Forum chose him as one of the 100 “Global Leaders of Tomorrow” for 2002.

Mike LinksvayerMike Linksvayer (Vice President, Creative Commons):
Started: Apr 2003
Mike Linksvayer joined Creative Commons as CTO. Previously he co-founded Bitzi. He has over ten years’ experience as an enterprise software, web, and multimedia developer and consultant and holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Nathan KinkadeNathan Kinkade (Web Engineer):
Started: June 2007
Nathan has worked and played in the area of computers and technology for around the past ten years. Shortly after his entry into the technology field he discovered free software and never looked back. In 2003 Nathan went to Belize, Central America with the Peace Corps as an Information Technology volunteer, working to promote free software at the University of Belize. After completing his service with the Peace Corps, he studied Spanish in Mexico for a semester and then moved to Panama where he was very fortunate to find work as a GNU/Linux system administrator and web programmer at one of the few companies actively promoting free software in Panama. Nathan holds a B.A. in history from Emory University.

Asheesh LaroiaAsheesh Laroia (Software Developer):
Started: July 2007
By the light of day, Asheesh Laroia builds software for Creative Commons. In the past, he has volunteered technical help at the World Food Programme in Uganda and interned at CC. His interest in technology and society led him to participate in an EFF case to rein in a company’s abuse of copyright law, to maintain software in Debian, and to lead the FreeCulture.org web team. In five years at the Johns Hopkins University, he juggled with the Entertainers Club from the start and spent two years each in leadership roles for the Entertainers Club and the Association for Computing Machinery chapter. After graduating, he holds an M.S.E. in computer science but is just as proud of the B.A. in cognitive science and the minors that adorn it.

Kevin Birtchnell (Chief Financial Officer):
Started: Mar 2007
Kevin Birtchnell is the Chief Financial Officer for Creative Commons. Kevin brings over 15 years experience of financial, accounting and business management. He has extensive experience of successfully growing a business through organic growth, of mergers and acquisitions, of various types of fund raising to include complex debt instruments and IPO’s, and of managing all of the significant business functions. Kevin graduated in Science from London University and is a qualified Chartrered Accountant. Originally from England, he now lives in San Francisco where he manages various business ventures and enjoys piloting small aircraft in his spare time.

Diane CabellDiane Cabell (Corporate Counsel):
Started: 2001
Diane Cabell, the Secretary and Corporate Counsel for Creative Commons, was the founder of the Clinical Program in Cyberlaw at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. She is a co-director of Chlling Effects and sits on the advisory boards of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) at University of Ottawa and the Center for Law and Innovation at the University of Maine School of Law.

Benjamin EmeryBenjamin Emery (Accountant):
Started: Nov 2006
Benjamin brings to Creative Commons 15 years experience with non-profit financial management and accounting. He has worked in various public benefit industries, most recently managing affordable housing portfolios here in the Bay Area. Benjamin sits on the board of directors of the San Francisco Community Land Trust, where he serves as the corporate
Treasurer. A cultural anthropologist by training, he received his B.S. from Michigan State University and his M.A. from the University of Chicago.

Elaine Adolfo (Executive Assistant):
Started: Jul 2004
Elaine Adolfo is the assistant for Lawrence Lessig. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in English Literature, she worked as a web producer for CMP, Beatnik, Macromedia and Apple. She’s written music and feature stories for college papers and LA Weekly. She also won an award from Rolling Stone magazine for a story she wrote on the horrors of finding dates on the Internet.

Allison Domicone (Development/Fundraising Intern):
Started: Apr 2008
Allison will graduate from the University of San Francisco in May of 2008, with a double major in French and International Studies. Her passions include traveling any and everywhere, spending hours cooking meals that may or may not end up tasting good, attending live performances of any kind, and dabbling with dance classes from time to time. She also does volunteer work on the side for an inspiring international non-profit, Akili Dada, that provides scholarships and mentoring activities to underprivileged young Kenyan women. She is thrilled to be joining the Creative Commons team and looks forward to helping the vision grow!