Kat Walsh

General Counsel

Kat Walsh is the General Counsel at Creative Commons. She was on the CC legal team 2012-2015 during the drafting and initial publication process of version 4.0 of the license suite and returned as Deputy General Counsel in 2021. She has a nearly 20-year history in the free and open culture movements, including many years on the boards of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Free Software Foundation, and has previously worked in library policy, technology startups, and online community management. Kat is an advocate for free access to knowledge and for CC licensing as part of the infrastructure for an internet that belongs to everyone. As General Counsel, she oversees the legal support for all aspects of CC's activities, provides strategic input, leads the stewardship of CC’s legal tools, and advises the organization on new programmatic initiatives. When not practicing law, Kat is also a bassoonist, violist, choral singer, and powerlifter. She is based in Novato, California.

Kat Walsh

Kat's News

CC opposes mandatory copyright filters, as well as using CC to justify them

Last Friday, United States (US) senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the “Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies (SMART) Copyright Act of 2022.” Their bill proposes to have the US Copyright Office mandate that all websites accepting user-uploaded material implement technologies to automatically filter that content. We’ve long believed that these kinds …Read More“CC opposes mandatory copyright filters, as well as using CC to justify them”

Policy / advocacy / copyright reform

Principles for License Enforcement published

The principles for license enforcement are now published. The consultation period has ended, and we’re grateful to everyone who contributed their many thoughtful comments! These principles will be useful for: Platforms that host CC-licensed materials and want to incorporate them into site policy to guide user expectations Creators who want to enforce rights under a …Read More“Principles for License Enforcement published”

Legal tools / licenses

License Stewardship consultation

The CC license suite was foundational to the creation of Creative Commons. To this day, the stewardship of CC licenses and public domain tools remains one of the core functions of the organization. At this milestone of the 20th anniversary of Creative Commons, we are embarking on a public consultation around CC’s stewardship. Specifically, we …Read More“License Stewardship consultation”