[cc-community] Extending CC into physical space

Mike Linksvayer ml at creativecommons.org
Tue Feb 24 11:09:34 EST 2009


On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 6:21 AM, Alan Cox <alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> I'm trying to work out how to use a CC licence outside of the pure
> "information" space.
>
> I produce model kits, and over time various kits cease to sell well
> enough to be worth producing as a business but demand never quite hits
> zero. So it's a classic long tail.
>
> My first thought was to release the artwork for some of the brass kits
> under a CC licence so that people can produce their own copies if they
> really really want or can find a group of people together to produce a
> set. That bit is fairly easy.
>
> Where it all goes pear shaped is that people will want to make
> modifications - to improve it, to produce with different matters, or
> different sizes etc.

Not sure I see the issue -- if people distribute the modified artwork,
they'd need to do so under the terms of the CC license you've offered,
unless they've made other arrangements or the use isn't restricted by
copyright.

> The CC attribution, sharealike license extends to the artwork but doesn't
> cover the results. Thus someone could improve the kit and providing they
> don't share the artwork itself take their improvements effectively out of
> the CC space.

Ok, I see the possible issue. If the model produced by your kits is
not restricted by copyright (and thus subject to the license offered),
you want to restrict it by some other means. I'm not sure this is
healthy :-) but I'd start by looking at whether the results are
considered adaptations of your artwork, and thus subject to copyright
and copyright licenses. Given the expansion of the scope of copyright,
it would surprise me if there were not some handles to grasp on here.
However, IANAL...

> I can clearly hack something out using the CC+ setup, but its a hack.

Actually it isn't clear -- you can't add restrictions to a CC license
with CC+, only offer alternative arrangements.

> Currently this is a fairly obscure area but with the rise in 3D printing
> the time before CC needs to have this debate about things like printing
> CC furniture or kitchen utensils is not long (at least in legal terms) so
> I was a bit suprised that it doesn't seem to be being addressed or even
> on anyones radar.
>
> Is there a better way to hack CC to do this or does the world need a GNU
> Physical Object Licence or similar ?

Well, it is a little bit on my radar. My (strictly non-legal) opinion
is that if a physical object is covered by copyright, CC licenses are
probably flexible enough to pre-clear some of copyright's
restrictions, under the usual terms. They're designed to work for any
medium covered by copyright. And if an object is not covered by
copyright, we'd want to be extremely careful about abetting an
expansion in the scope of copyright and neighbors.

Mike


More information about the cc-community mailing list