[cc-community] FYI: comment by Eric S Raymond on CC

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Fri Feb 15 09:21:39 EST 2008


Andrew Rens wrote:
> ### On the contrary an implied licence is needed according to the very same
> logic, since how else can someone read the NC licence other than by first
> downloading the site? Only after downloading the site can the reader be
> aware of what licensing terms the site purports to apply to specific works.
> So an implied licence is needed.

I think you missed an important point in Drew's example: the NC material
has a gatekeeper page which tells you what the license terms are for
accessing the NC material on the site.

In other words, you go to page A (which indeed must have your implied
license), which contains links to page B with a notice that page B is
licensed "CC-By-NC".


There was actually a court case related to this:

Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy Ruling

The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has corrected a lower court ruling,
preserving the privacy of password-protected websites as well as the
right to read public sites. The case began with a site that had a banner
and purported Terms of Service forbidding DirecTV representatives from
entering the site or using its message board, but it was configured such
that anyone in the public could do so. The original ruling was that the
SCA didn't apply to websites at all, but the appeals
court concluded that the case should instead be thrown out because the
author of the site, Michael Snow, did not place any access controls to
enforce his policy. "If by simply clicking a hypertext link, after
ignoring an express warning, on an otherwise publicly accessible
webpage, one is liable under the SCA, then the floodgates of litigation
would open and the merely curious would be prosecuted. We find no intent
by Congress to so permit", reads the opinion of the court.

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_06.php#004720


It appears that the mere warning is not sufficient -- some form of
access control is required. Of course, that's just in the US and just
one precedent, but it suggests what the rules are.

Cheers,
Terry

Who is not a lawyer. But sometimes I read things lawyers write. And
spread rumors. ;-)

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com




More information about the cc-community mailing list