[cc-community] Copyright enforcement and CC BY-NC licenses

drew Roberts zotz at 100jamz.com
Sat Aug 2 13:26:18 EDT 2008


On Saturday 02 August 2008 11:35:02 jonathon wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 05:17, drew Roberts  wrote:
> > So, if you make a song and release it BY-NC, I cam make a new song based
> > on yours and release mine BY-NC as well and get paid royalties on my song
> > without violating your NC license?

Jonathon, help me out here in my ignorance. Have you specifically chosen a 
situation below which avoids the problem in the question posed?

I will try and ask questions that illustrate my ignorance and why I ask.
>
> Person A writes a poem, that is released under CC-BY-NC

Good.

> Person B likes the poem, and sets it to music.  That score is released
> under CC-BY-NC

Does person B need to make use of person A's BY-NC license to do this? If not, 
then the situation is not relevant to the real question being posed. We need 
to answer this for cases where person B cannot do what they do except withing 
the confines of the license offered by A.

> Person C likes the poem, and the music, but arranges it differently.
> That arrangement is released under CC-BY-NC

Again. Does person c need to make use of person A's or person B'sBY-NC license 
to do this?

> Person D likes all of the above, and releases it as a CD, under the
> CC-BY-NC.

Same questions and possible objections as above.
>
> Person E like's Person's D CD, and proceeds to sell it in a store.
>
> Person A through D collect royalties thru different collection
> societies.   However, none of them granted Person E the right to sell
> the product.  Furthermore, US Federal law does not grant Person E the
> right to sell that product either.
>
> Where all this gets complicated, is who paid who, and how much was
> paid, to the various collection societies, unions, and other
> organizations that exist to separate musicians from their income.

So. Just in case your example allows the early players to do what they do 
outside of the confines of the upstream NC licensors...

Person A writes words and music and records a song. Releases the whole shebang 
under cc BY-NC-SA. (I added SA to avoid the complication of being able to 
change the license downstream.

Person B records a cover version with changed lyrics and releases as BY-NC-SA 
as well.

Doesn't B using the NC license from A preclude B from using the work 
commercially? If so, how can B collect royalties? Isn't collecting royalties 
considered a commercial use? (Other than operating under other licensing 
schemes than the cc BY-NC-SA one that we are discussing?

>
> xan
>
> jonathon

all the best,

drew



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