AI and the Commons: A Reading List

Here at CC, we have the goal of defending and sustaining the digital commons in the face of developments in artificial intelligence.

We’ve recently introduced a new framework, CC signals, to offer a new way for stewards of large collections of content to indicate their preferences for how machines (and the humans controlling them) should contribute back to the commons.

As we develop our approach, we’re taking inspiration from the work of our partners, community, and other stakeholders. We’re particularly interested in efforts to understand:

• How AI scrapers are reshaping the web 
• Copyright, labor, surveillance, and resistance
• The effects of a new economy of data licensing
• Emerging ideas for more ethical AI and consensual data governance 

We’re reading (a lot!) on these topics, to help ensure that CC signals become part of a diverse set of solutions for protecting the commons in the unfolding AI future. Here’s some of the writing that’s shaping our thinking:

• Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping – Maxwell Zeff, TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/cloudflare-launches-a-marketplace-that-lets-websites-charge-ai-bots-for-scraping/ 
• Legal frictions for data openness: Reflections from a case-study on re-use of the open web for AI training – Ramya Chandrasekhar https://hal.science/hal-05009616v1 
• AI Training, the Licensing Mirage, and Effective Alternatives to Support Creative Workers – Derek Slater, Tech Policy Press https://www.techpolicy.press/ai-training-the-licensing-mirage-and-effective-alternatives-to-support-creative-workers/ 
• “Wait, not like that”: Free and open access in the age of generative AI – Molly White, Citation Needed https://www.citationneeded.news/free-and-open-access-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/ 
• Telling AI to go away (but politely) – Nick Jackson, dxw https://www.dxw.com/2025/04/telling-ai-to-go-away-but-politely/ 
• Can AI Be Consentful? Rethinking Permission in the Age of Synthetic Everything – Giada Pistilli, Hugging Face https://huggingface.co/blog/giadap/consentful-ai 
• AI Should Help Fund Creative Labor – Mariana Mazzucato, Project Syndicate https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/how-ai-profits-can-help-fund-cultural-production-by-mariana-mazzucato-and-fausto-gernone-2025-07 
• Licensing, Levies, and the Limits of Copyright – Paul Keller, OpenFuture https://openfuture.eu/blog/licensing-levies-and-the-limits-of-copyright/ 

We’d love for you to read and learn alongside us, share your thoughts, and contribute other articles and resources to this list! Connect with us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, or Mastodon.