(all infographics by Lemonly, via CreativeCommons.org)

(all infographics by Lemonly, via CreativeCommons.org)

In its first-ever “State of the Commons” report, Creative Commons — the nonprofit that aims to facilitate the free sharing and licensing of creative work — revealed that there are at least 882 million Creative Commons–licensed works currently available online, and that sometime next year that figure is expected to pass one billion.

The number of these works has grown exponentially, from just 50 million in 2006 to 400 million in 2010, to more than double that figure in the last four years. Creative Commons works with licenses linking back to the Creative Commons website are accessed 27 million times per day (this does not account for the many licensed pieces that do not link back).

The organization has dutifully made Creative Commons–licensed infographics to illustrate some of the most impressive figures. One notable omission from these, though it can be gleaned from this interactive map, is that the United States accounts for one third of all Creative Commons usage worldwide — the second-biggest user, the UK, accounts for seven percent.

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Read the full “State of the Commons” report here.

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Benjamin Sutton

Benjamin Sutton is an art critic, journalist, and curator who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn. His articles on public art, artist documentaries, the tedium of art fairs, James Franco's obsession with Cindy...