[cc-community] What are the disadvantages of not using CC?

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Thu Jun 15 14:50:23 EDT 2006


Justin Morgan wrote:
>  This is probably a very basic question. Suppose somebody
>  wishes to allow someone to copy their work and distribute it,
>  provided they receive attribution and that nobody changes their work.
>  Suppose they simply put their work online with a notice that says
>  "You can use this stuff however you want, provided you don't change
>  it and that you credit me for each use".

In principle, that will work okay, but it's easy to mis-speak, and it's
potentially harder for the reader to find and understand the terms
on which the work is offered. That increases the chance that they
will make assumptions -- which may not be the ones you intended.

>  My question is, why is putting a notice like that (which is obviously
>  much easier than using a CC license) legally disadvantageous? In
>  other words, how does applying the cc-by-nd license differ from
>  putting a simple friendly notice on the site?

The CC license badge provides visual clarity (the new, more license-
explicit versions will be even better for this).

The RDF code allows search engines to find your content based on
license-discriminating searches (this is VERY useful for readers, because
they may only be interested in works that they can reproduce).

Finally, CC has thought through any legal details in the license, so
you have a much more airtight license, should there be any possibility
of misinterpretation. Of course, "By-ND" is a fairly simple case, so this
isn't as much of a win as it is with "By-SA" for example, but it still
matters.

Also, I question the claim that writing your own license is
"easier" than using the pre-prepare CC material (which is
awfully easy to do, IMHO).  *I* certainly find ready-made
licensing materials to be a big time-saver.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com



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