Creative Commons API down

[Carolyn Sullivan]

Hello all,

One of our team members Yohann noticed the Creative Commons API, http://api.creativecommons.org/, is down and the integration with our repository is inactive, so no one can select a CC license.  

If anyone has contacts within the CC community, could you please give them a nudge and let them know this problem is happening?

Thanks,

Carolyn.

[Sean Carte]

Hi Carolyn

I sent a message to in...@creativecommons.org.

Sean

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[Guillermo Castellano Casas]

Hi there,

The API is working again. In our case, we had to restart Tomcat in order to select a CC license.

BR,

Guillermo

[Carolyn Sullivan]

Thank you both for the information on the issue!  As a heads up, I messaged the Creative Commons Technical Lead, Timid Robot, and they told me the Creative Commons API is going to go inactive sometime this year for good.  Has anyone looked at pivoting to the openaire_license_types (see https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/main/dspace/config/submission-forms.xml , around line 1517) and thought about what that might entail?  I thiiiink those might fill out a slightly different metadata field on the backend than the CC integration does, but it's been awhile since I looked into it.

Have a great day,

Carolyn.

[Sean Carte]

This is the response I received from CC. It looks like a DSpace dev is going to need to speak to them.

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Re: api down
Date:	Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:18:37 +0100
From:	Timid Robot Zehta <ti...@creativecommons.org>
To:	Sean Carte <se...@dut.ac.za>

Sean-

Greetings,

The Creative Commons (CC) API server is back online, but it is increasingly unreliable and will eventually be shut down this year. The software it based on (ccEngine) was archived.

I expect the calls to api.creativecommons.org can be replaced with data files from the CC Legal Tools. I expect one or more data files could provide the same functionality and do so in a more efficient and reliable manner.

For example: https://github.com/creativecommons/cc-legal-tools-data/blob/main/config/cc-legal-tools.csv

Do you have more information on the software that relies on the CC API server and/or can you connect me with a developer?

Sincerely,

-Timid Robot

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[Sean Carte]

It looks like the DSpace devs are already working on a solution:

https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/11808

Sean

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