Creative Commons is best described as what?

• A. A nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop, support, and steward legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
• B. A for-profit licensing agency that charges per-use fees.
• C. A government program that enforces copyright.
• D. A private repository of copyrighted works.

Answer: (A)

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops and maintains the free, standardized licensing framework and tools that make sharing and reusing creative works easier and legally clear. It provides licenses creators can apply to their works to specify permissions—such as attribution, whether commercial use is allowed, and whether derivatives are allowed—so others can reuse them under defined terms. This infrastructure is designed to maximize digital creativity and collaboration, not to charge per use, enforce copyright as a government program, or host a private collection of works.