[cc-community] What does NC means?
jonathon
jonathon.blake at gmail.com
Sat Sep 15 16:29:49 EDT 2007
Milos wrote:
> It seems that I am not the only person who is totally confused with
> meaning of NC, so I am asking here for an explanation.
There are probably half a dozen major variants on what the NC license
allows/means, and a dozen or so minor variations. I'm not going to
enumerate them all here. I'm pretty sure that the list archives
contain at least an outline of each of those theories on what
"Non-Commercial" means.
> And if is so, what is the purpose of NC?
This literally depends upon which theory of what "Non Commercial"
means, that the creator adopts. To a lesser extent it also depends
upon which theory the user adopts.
>Not to make profit by selling, but to make profit from commercials?
One of the major variants considers commercials used anywhere in
relation to the NC content, to be a violation of the NC license.
On the flipside, another variant in how the NC license is interpreted,
allows the content to be sold for a gross profit, by a third party.
A third theory mandates that content may only be distributed gratis,
and that even a hint of either a direct, or indirect request for
recuperation of costs is a license violation. (Adds constitute a "hint
of an indirect request.)
> If it is not, consider that NC is useful only on Internet and that only 1/6 of
How useful it is for non-Internet material depends upon which one of
the major variants in what the NC license means the creator of the
material has adopted.
>In this case I don't see any valid reason for supporting such license
except for supporting people who think that it is fancy to have CC
logo on their site.
The _major_ issue with the NC license is that there is no definition
of either "commercial" or "non-commercial" in the license itself.
This makes it a contract, in which a key element is left undefined.
This lack of a definition is also why there are so many different
theories as to what constitutes "non-commercial usage".
xan
jonathon
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