[cc-community] Copyright enforcement and CC BY-NC licenses
jonathon
jonathon.blake at gmail.com
Sat Aug 2 17:11:35 EDT 2008
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:26, drew Roberts wrote:
> Jonathon, help me out here in my ignorance. Have you specifically chosen a situation below which avoids the problem in the question posed?
For music, as best as I can tell, there is no way to avoid that problem.
>Does person B need to make use of person A's BY-NC license to do this?
Derivative work.
Under US law, one is automatically allowed to make derivatives,
provided the appropriate royalties/permissions are obtained. In other
countries, the situation is more or less the same. (The major
difference is whether or not the derivative work affects the moral
rights of the content creator.)
The NC license grants permission, providing the derivative work is not
commercially used.
[For the purposes of this discussion, "commercial usage" is defined as
"non-gratis distribution of NC content on any physical media." (I'm
over-simplifying things here.)]
> 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.
That would be the release as sheet music.
> Person B records a cover version with changed lyrics and releases as BY-NC-SA as well.
That would be the release as an ogg track.
> Doesn't B using the NC license from A preclude B from using the work commercially?
Yes. However, one can still record a cover version, and release it,
without it being "commercial" in nature. ( Distribution as a "thank
you gift' for donations to a non-profit, is one example that the CC NC
Guidelines offer.)
The commercial usage would be releasing the sheet music and OGG track
on a DVD, that is then sold by CoSMos, Tower Records, and similar
places. (OK, both Tower Records, and CoSMoS are out of business. The
last time I bought a new CD that wasn't at a live performance was
almost a decade ago. (That was a CD by 阿妹. I later discovered that
had I sent her a dollar, she would have received more money, than my
purchase of the CD earned for her.))
> If so, how can B collect royalties? Isn't collecting royalties considered a commercial use?
Going by the CC licenses, and guidelines, collecting royalties need
not be commercial usage.
xan
jonathon
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