CC license is fundamentally incompatible with generative AI.

[greg-kennedy]

Description

It seems fundamentally impossible to use generative AI trained on CC licensed content in a manner compatible with the original licensing. Consider:

1. A CC license can be considered a disclaimer of some, but not all, rights provided by copyright laws. For example, it allows sharing, but with conditions (i.e. "name must stay attached", "do not alter this", etc). These retained rights are protected by the copyright infrastructure, and dependent on its protections to function.
2. AI model output is not copyrightable (at least in the U.S. and other major jurisdictions).
3. Therefore, it is impossible to enforce the derivative terms provided by a CC license when creating AI output. The AI process effectively "launders" the restrictions, producing output that legally cannot be compelled to have the same protections guaranteed by the license of step 1.

Placing a CC license on a work should not be removable by loopholes - technical, legal, or otherwise. "Signalling" to an AI scraper that the content might be OK to Scrape does not render the license moot. It does nothing to resolve the basic issue at stake here.

Expectation

My expectation is that the foundation which devised, promoted, and enforces the CC license (creative commons dot org) should not willfully participate in trying to find means to circumvent the protections its very licenses offer, but instead should stick to its mission statement and goals.

Resolution

• See discussion Your proposal is fundamentally bad; withdraw it. #25

[greg-kennedy]

Why was this made a "discussion" instead of an "issue"? It regards a legal quandary of the CC license which signals do not alleviate, and seems like a defect in the specification. What happens if I put CC-BY-SA on my content and then signal to scrapers it's free to use (or more likely: my content hosting service does) - which one takes precedence? can I sue the scraper afterwards?

[Ryuno-Ki]

Because #27 - pretty much every issue got converted and locked up as consequence.

[drawnto]

@Ryuno-Ki You are answering When and through which act but the question originally raised by greg was why and is still unanswered.

[CC-signals]

We address parts of this question in our FAQ (discussion #63):

CC licenses are built atop copyright. This means that they are only enforceable insofar as copyright extends.

We provide more information regarding the CC licenses and AI training here: https://creativecommons.org/2025/05/15/understanding-cc-licenses-and-ai-training-a-legal-primer/.

Because of this, CC licenses are not an effective tool for preventing or placing restrictions on AI training. This is why we sought to create a new framework that might work alongside the CC licenses to address many of the concerns that have been raised.