[cc-community] CC-licensed terms and conditions / policies?
Fred Benenson
fred.benenson at gmail.com
Sat Aug 18 05:56:19 EDT 2007
In terms of this being a "bad idea" -- I don't think it is right off the
bat, and I think most lawyers would be inclined to agree (I know there are
some on this list, so speak up if I'm totally maligning you..)
There are obviously going to be some terms and conditions that some
startups/groups/projects will need that others won't (think privacy vs.
copyright of users) but in general, the terms and conditions in most legal
contracts are considered uncopyrightable.
This is due to something called the "merger doctrine" -- that the expression
of ideas in a work are so close to the idea itself, that they "merge" with
it, and are therefore unprotectable via copyright. That is, the ideas
expressed in legal documents and contracts must necessarily be expressed in
one particular way, and modifying them (creating derivative works, etc.)
would dilute their legal meaning and force, so there should be no deviation
from a standard legally accepted contract content and format. If I remember
correctly, there's actually a lawsuit between one sweepstakes/lottery
company against another sweepstakes/lottery company over their t&c, and this
is pretty much what the court found -- the defendant's were not held liable
for copyright infringement.
That's why people often pillage t&cs from other sites with little recourse.
So this is all to say, that CC licensing t&cs may be a little over kill, but
not that CC shouldn't themselves create a boilerplate for people to use, I
think that's very useful and necessary and look forward to whatever the new
GC comes up with.
Sorry for the copyright lecture & IANAL, yet..
F
On 8/18/07, Jon Phillips <jon at creativecommons.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 2007-08-18 at 07:12 +0300, Tom Scott wrote:
> > > Yes, this is something that I have been pushing for at CC and is
> > > actually a priority once our new GC comes online in the fall...cheers!
> >
> > Do you mean the speaker's agreement, or legal agreements in general?
> > - and would it be worthwhile my starting up a CC Contracts site to try
> > and get this off the ground, or should I wait for an official project?
> >
> > -- Tom
>
> Simple legal tools and forms (like speakers agreement)...there is a long
> list of things for the new GC to work on, but this shouldn't bottleneck
> any projects to be undertaken...also, please do look at the bottom of my
> email for the general legal disclaimer :)
>
> Jon
>
> --
> Jon Phillips
> jon at creativecommons.org
> cell: +1.510.499.0894 (80% time)
> desk: +1.415.369.8486 (20% time)
>
> Community/Business Developer
> Creative Commons
> www.creativecommons.org
>
>
> Please note: the contents of this email are not intended to be
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> legal advice. Creative Commons cannot and does not give legal advice.
> You need to assess the suitability of Creative Commons' tools for
> your particular situation, which may include obtaining appropriate
> legal advice from a licensed attorney.
>
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