[cc-community] Relicence Public Domain as Creative Commons?
Terry Hancock
hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Thu Oct 2 16:05:35 EDT 2008
Barry Hunter wrote:
> 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)?
If the work was in the public domain, then it still is. Offering it
under a license won't change that, but is probably not illegal (because
a license is giving rights -- in this case, rights you already have, so
it doesn't make a difference).
Ethically or socially, of course, it would be awfully nice if you
provided some way to tell that a work was actually PD, since it would
save people some trouble and avoid confusion.
You might be able to just put a notice somewhere.
One question I have -- could you just create a "Public Domain" user, and
let people upload in the name of that user? That might be a simple way
to signal that the work is PD (after all PD isn't a "license", it's the
absence of an owner).
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
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