[cc-community] digital vs. physical distribution rights

Rob Myers rob at robmyers.org
Tue Jan 29 14:38:11 EST 2008


Ocetalo wrote:

> 1st. Choice: Allowing non commercial, free distribution of one's works 
> to anybody in any medium, be it tangible or intangible, no author's 
> permission required under certain conditions. That's a kind of 
> distribution CC comprises as far as I've understood.

Yes that would be the NonCommercial license (NC).

> 2nd. Choice: Allowing non commercial, free distribution as long as one's 
> works remain intangible, I mean, in digital formats. Printing, 
> publishing, displaying or distributing on paper or any other tangible, 
> non digital medium is not allowed without the author's express 
> permission. Are there any Creative Commons licenses allowing to pick 
> this choice?

The closest to this would be NoDerivatives (ND), but this would still 
allow prints.

Both copyright and people's expectations of being able to use a work 
they have in digital form don't differentiate between digital copies and 
hard copies. Indeed the recording industries are more worried about the 
former when they talk about copyright.

I am an artist and I provide digital versions of my work under a 
ShareAlike license. I also once signed up to a service that sold prints, 
and I think providing that kind of service is probably the best way of 
getting paid for hardcopies, rather than trying to prevent anyone else 
from making them. Someone who prints out a piece of art on their home 
printer is unlikely to do that rather than pay a gallery for an oil 
painting...

- Rob.


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