[cc-community] selling book rights, and CC-BY-SA

jonathon jonathon.blake at gmail.com
Sat Jul 25 11:14:34 EDT 2009


On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 12:24, Chris Watkins wrote:

> As CC-BY-SA allows the creator to specify how attribution is given, can they specify that it can't be published (by someone else) under title X as the work of author Y?

Not really.  The publisher will add a concordance, or something
equally trivial, then  publish it  claiming it to be a derivative work
 of "x" by  "y". Something along the lines of _A Concordance of "X" by
 "Y"_.   This concordance includes the complete  text.  (I'm using
concordance as an example, simply because they are trivial to
generate,  and add percieved value.   Glossaries, time lines,
genealogies, and the like are fairly simple to generate, and also add
percieved value.)

> AFAIK the license doesn't allow the creator to forbid the use of a certain title... but perhaps if it's trademarked, they can forbid it?

If you really want  to go that route,  talk with a very experienced
trademark lawyer.  My guess is that it will cost for more to file, and
defend your trademark, than the gross revenue of the work.

> especially as this is a more serious work,

If it is non-fiction, you probably are right.  On the flip site, with
the correct marketing, non-fiction merchandise can generate far more
revenue than  book sales  do, (The "average" book sells under 1,100
copies per year.)

jonathon


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