[cc-licenses] Clarification needed - Copyleft AND Share-Alike with Images

rob at robmyers.org rob at robmyers.org
Mon Feb 26 08:49:52 EST 2007


Quoting drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com>:

> What I think people are saying they want, and I am not against it
> in principle is for BY-SA or a variation of BY-SA to forbid making or
> distributing copies where the work is linked with meaning to non BY-SA works
> or at least non-copyleft or perhaps even non-Free works. So you could not use
> their BY-SA photos of animals in your ARR book about animals. Or their BY-SA
> photo of a natural disaster in your ARR news account of that disaster? They
> see, and I think rightly I might add, that despite how copyright law treats
> the situation, that the book links the text and the photos in some tight
> manner. It would perhaps be different if they had a book about animals and
> the photos were all of cars, but even there I am not sure. Perhaps it is more
> to do with what is marketed and sold?

It is to do with use of the image as an illustration. Image libraries have no
problem making and enforcing this distinction.

So BY-SA currently reads:

1b. "Collection" means a collection of literary or artistic works, such as
encyclopedias and anthologies, or performances, phonograms or broadcasts, or
other works or subject matter other than works listed in Section 1(f) below,
which, by reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents, 
constitute
intellectual creations, in which the Work is included in its entirety in
unmodified form along with one or more other contributions, each constituting
separate and independent works in themselves, which together are 
assembled into
a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collection will not be 
considered
an Adaptation (as defined below) for the purposes of this License.

Ideally it would be modified to read:

1b. [...]which, by reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents,
constitute intellectual creations, in which the Work is included in its
entirety in unmodified form along with one or more other contributions WITHOUT
BEING USED TO ILLUSTRATE OR ACCOMPANY THOSE CONTRIBUTIONS, each constituting
separate and independent works in themselves, [...]

But since this tries to redefine a legal term, we would instead add:

1x. "Illustration or Accompanyment". Licensed works used to illustrate or
accompany another work do not make the illustrated or accompanied work an
adaptation but can only be used to illustrate or accompany works also covered
by this license. For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical work,
performance or phonogram, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation
with a moving image ("synching") will cause this clause to be in effect.

Notice that I am not redefining the word "adaptation", and that this is not
viral.

- Rob.




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