[cc-community] Relicence Public Domain as Creative Commons?

Barry Hunter barry at barryhunter.co.uk
Thu Oct 2 12:41:15 EDT 2008


Ok so that might sound strange, so will try to explain...

I help run www.geograph.org.uk - which collects photographs of every
part of the British Isles. As part of the site submission process we
require users to adopt a by-sa/2.0 license for their photos. This is
the only license used, and the site is based on the assumption that he
photographer themselves are submitting the photos.

We also have a textbox to put the photographers name (for the credit)
if the contributor is simply acting as a Licensor - so this is used
where the photographer is unable to submit themselves, NOT to allow
the works of others to be submitted (where that work is already under
a creative commons licence)


In addition to this it would be nice to allow public domain photos to
be submitted - under the same basic system. In which case the message
with the photo would mention its public domain image, but that
requires a change to the software and also how we distribute photos to
other sites (which assume all images are under one licence)


So the question is can the public domain be submitted under the
current system? Basically is it ok for someone to claim a copyright on
a non-copyrighted work (and the owner of the work has already said the
don't want claim any rights on the photo)?

My instinct says NO, as for one its misleading and possibly considered
dishonest 'claiming' someone elses work. But its also seems on shaky
legal grounds. However the license is effectively invalid - the word
is available elsewhere without restriction! - so it could be
considered it doesn't really matter?

I suppose it could be claimed the 'creative' work that is being
licenced is the process of copying of image - and which really should
mention that the image is available *elsewhere* as public domain.


Thanks for reading this far, and apologies for the long rambley email,
not sure how to explain it any better...



Barry
Geograph British Isles





-- 
Barry

- www.nearby.org.uk - www.geograph.org.uk -


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