"No Rights Reserved"

CC0

CC0 enables scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright- or database-protected content to waive those interests in their works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, and then that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without brake under copyright or database police.

In dissimilarity to CC'south licenses that allow copyright holders to choose from a range of permissions while retaining their copyright, CC0 empowers withal another choice altogether – the choice to opt out of copyright and database protection, and the sectional rights automatically granted to creators – the "no rights reserved" culling to our licenses.

The Problem

Dedicating works to the public domain is difficult if not impossible for those wanting to contribute their works for public use before applicable copyright or database protection terms expire. Few if any jurisdictions accept a process for doing so easily and reliably. Laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as to what rights are automatically granted and how and when they expire or may be voluntarily relinquished. More challenging nevertheless, many legal systems finer prohibit any attempt by these owners to surrender rights automatically conferred by police force, particularly moral rights, fifty-fifty when the writer wishing to practise so is well informed and resolute near doing so and contributing their piece of work to the public domain.

A Solution

CC0 helps solve this problem by giving creators a way to waive all their copyright and related rights in their works to the fullest extent immune by law. CC0 is a universal musical instrument that is not adapted to the laws of whatsoever particular legal jurisdiction, like to many open source software licenses. And while no tool, non even CC0, tin guarantee a consummate relinquishment of all copyright and database rights in every jurisdiction, we believe information technology provides the best and near complete alternative for contributing a work to the public domain given the many circuitous and diverse copyright and database systems around the world.

Using CC0

Unlike the Public Domain Mark, CC0 should non exist used to marking works already free of known copyright and database restrictions and in the public domain throughout the world. However, it can be used to waive copyright and database rights to the extent y'all may accept these rights in your work under the laws of at least one jurisdiction, even if your work is free of restrictions in others. Doing so clarifies the status of your piece of work unambiguously worldwide and facilitates reuse.

You lot should only utilise CC0 to your own piece of work, unless y'all take the necessary rights to employ CC0 to another person'south piece of work.

Examples

  • Europeana — Europe's digital library — releases its metadata into the public domain using CC0. This massive dataset consists of descriptive information from a huge trove of digitized cultural and artistic works. Past removing all restrictions on the use of the metadata that describes these cultural works, Europeana creates opportunities for developers, designers, and other digital innovators to create applications, games for mobile devices, and websites that visualize and represent the diverse collection of artistic works in Europeana. See Europeana releases 20 million records into the public domain using CC0.
  • figshare allows researchers to publish all of their enquiry outputs in an easily citable, searchable, shareable manner. Figshare has adopted CC0 as the default tool for researchers to share their datasets. In many cases, it can be difficult to ascertain whether a database is subject to copyright law, as many types of data aren't copyrightable in many jurisdictions. Putting a database or dataset in the public domain nether CC0 is a way to remove whatever legal doubt about whether researchers can use the information in their projects. Hundreds of organizations utilise CC0 to dedicate their piece of work to the public domain. Although CC0 doesn't legally require users of the data to cite the source, it does not touch on the upstanding norms for attribution in scientific and research communities.
  • Open Goldberg Variations: Before the Open Goldberg Variations, public domain recordings of Bach'southward Goldberg Variations were hard to find, even though the scores themselves were in the public domain. Open Goldberg Variations wanted to alter that, so it teamed up with professional person musician Kimiko Ishizaka and started a Kickstarter project to create studio-quality recordings, promising to release them into the public domain using the CC0 public domain dedication tool. Co-ordinate to the project founders, "Musicians are normally not willing to withdraw their copyrights and their command over usage, but we experience that they thus miss opportunities to contribute to the greater good and benefit from wider distribution of their works. If this projection succeeds, nosotros hope that the recording will exist bachelor to everyone forevermore, and that information technology will be a truly widely known and enjoyed artistic piece of work." Sure enough, the projection was funded at most double its original funding goal, and as a result all 30 variations performed by Kimiko Ishizaka are now available for free download via CC0.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art: All public domain images in its collection are shared under CC0, which expanded their digital collection by over 375,000 images likewise as provided data on over 420,000 museum objects spanning more than 5,000 years. Through the power of the eatables, billions of people are now able to bask the beauty of the Met's collections also equally participate in the continued growth of the commons, utilizing the infrastructure that makes greater collaboration possible.

More info

  • Read the CC0 FAQ
  • Read the CC0 summary and legal text
  • Employ CC0 to your own work