CC license & commercial works.

Daniel Carrera dcarrera at math.umd.edu
Sun Nov 14 09:03:04 EST 2004


Hello Patrick,

Thank you for your input.

Patrick Costello wrote:

> "Legally ok?" Yeah, I guess.
> 
> If she is copyrighting the work before she gives away the .pdf files the
> only thing a CC license will really do is give her a little bit of legal
> boilerplate to outline what parts of her copyright she is and isn't
> enforcing.

She would be promoting the Creative Commons by making people aware of it.  
That's the main goal really.  I was talking to her about the Creative 
Commons, she thinks it's a cool idea and is looking at ways to implememt 
it on her site.  She's already going to use a CC license for her 
non-commercial work.  We're just looking for a way to make the CC work 
within her commercial framework.


> Saying, "if you buy this book I'll give it to you under this CC license" is
> kind of missing the whole point. Part of the idea with CC is that you are
> throwing the material into the internet for people to use. It's not a sales
> tool in the sense that a person pays for the right to access the content.

Well, neither is her current system.  Like I said, people are currently 
allowed to make copies of her work, and she's happy with that.  She's 
actually retired and writes books for fun.  But she figured that a little 
side income wouldn't hurt.

Another idea I thought of was a "tip jar" for people to voluntarily make a 
donation.

<snip: very interesting explanation of how Patric uses CC />

> Since releasing to the books online sales are up. We're doing well enough on
> Amazon for Barnes & Noble and other resellers to take us seriously

I understand.  Actually, the same thing happened with her.  First, Amazon 
began selling her book.  Then O'Reilly came and said "we like your book, 
and we want to hire you to make an updated version with us as your 
publisher".  So, her distributing her work under a freely distributable 
license got her a job (though she wasn't planning for it).

> CC isn't a sales tool.

It could be... ;-)

But regardless, she isn't looking for a sales tool.  She's looking for an 
excuse to put the CC button on her website and inform all her site 
visitors about it.  Because she sees that it's a cool idea and wants to 
promote it.

Cheers,
-- 
Daniel Carrera            | No trees were harmed in the generation of
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