[cc-licenses] Photo alongside text: collective or derivative

Peter Brink peter.brink at brinkdata.se
Wed Jul 5 07:15:52 EDT 2006


Henri Sivonen skrev:
> 
> In that case, do the text and the photo form a Collective Work (and  
> the text does not need to be licensed under CC-by-sa 2.5) or do they  
> form a Derivative Work (and the text has to be under CC-by-sa 2.5)?
> 

I'd say it's a collective work. A derivative work is an expression that 
owes its form (and not just its content) from another expression. An 
expression might be dependent upon another as far as it's content goes, 
such as a text commenting the contents of a picture, but that does not 
mean that the text _derives_ from the picture. The text's form and 
content is an independent expression influenced by the contents of the 
picture. In the second paragraph of art. 4 of the Finnish Copyright Act 
(http://www.wipo.int/clea/docs_new/en/fi/fi054en.html) this is expressed 
as: "If a person has drawn freely on a work to create a new and 
independent work, his copyright shall not be subject to the right in the 
original work." In the Swedish Copyright Act the same idea is expressed 
as: "If a person, in free connection with another work, has created a 
new and independent work, his copyright shall not be subject to the 
right in the original work." (4 § 2 st.).

So I'd say that the text does not need to be licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.

/Peter Brink






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