About CommonsDB
CommonsDB is an initiative funded by the European Commission to develop and test a prototype registry of Public Domain and openly licensed works.
CommonsDB is an initiative funded by the European Commission to develop and test a prototype registry of Public Domain and openly licensed works. CommonsDB is led by Open Future in collaboration with Liccium, Europeana Foundation, Wikimedia Sverige, and the Institute for Information Law (IViR).
The goal of CommonsDB is to create a reliable and accessible infrastructure for identifying and verifying the rights status of digital content. This will be achieved by building a registry that enables users to verify the rights status of content from multiple sources, using existing technologies and standards, such as ISCC codes, rights metadata, and verifiable credentials, and makes registry information easily accessible through public APIs.
The idea for CommonsDB originated from Open Future's 2021 white paper by Paul Keller and Felix Reda, which proposed the creation of a public repository for public domain and openly licensed works. This concept gained traction and led to the European Parliament requesting and funding a pilot project for such a registry.
CommonsDB aligns with the European Commission's efforts to strengthen the Digital Commons and promote openness, interoperability, and accessibility. The initiative aims to develop copyright infrastructure that provides better public information about rights status and permissions. This is crucial for facilitating AI training while respecting creators' rights, ensuring creators have control over the use of their works, particularly in the context of AI development, providing clear guidance on machine-readable opt-outs for AI training, and developing standards for AI training compliance.
Led by Open Future, the CommonsDB consortium comprises Liccium, Europeana Foundation, Wikimedia Sverige, and the Institute for Information Law. This partnership combines proven capabilities from major repositories of public domain and openly licensed works, including Europeana and Wikimedia Commons (through Wikimedia Sverige), alongside leading research in information law from IViR, and technical expertise from Liccium.
Over the next 18 months, we will be working closely with our partners and external experts to design and implement the prototype registry. To learn more about our plans and progress, you can explore our Roadmap, which provides a visual overview of the project timeline and key milestones, and consult our Documentation page. To stay updated about CommonsDB, sign up for our newsletter: