[cc-community] can cc-by work be re-used on Google Knol?

Bennett Haselton bennett at peacefire.org
Sun Aug 10 20:32:19 EDT 2008


Google Knol currently lets you choose CC-BY as one of the licensing 
options for a new knol that you publish.  Can you incorporate CC-BY 
works written by other people, into your own knol, if you choose 
CC-BY as your own publishing option, and give attribution to the 
author of the base work?

At first it would seem the answer is 'Yes', since you can use someone 
else's CC-BY work in your own CC-BY work as long as you give them 
attribution.  However, there's a possible hiccup -- Knol's TOS section 8:
http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/si57lahl1w25/12#
also grants Google the right to "modify" and "create derivative works 
based on" the work that you submit.  Could this potentially include 
"derivative works" that take out the attribution to the original 
author?  And hence, would you not be allowed to use someone else's 
CC-BY work on Knol, because you'd be granting Google the right to 
create derivative works that take out the attribution, which you're 
not allowed to do?

On the other hand, perhaps "derivative works" are not deemed to 
include works that take out the attribution to the original author -- 
in which case you could include someone else's CC-BY work in a Knol 
article as long as you give the required attribution.

	-Bennett

bennett at peacefire.org     http://www.peacefire.org
(425) 497 9002



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