[cc-licenses] Version 4:0: second draft suggested change to definition of "noncommercial"
Heather Morrison
hgmorris at sfu.ca
Sat Apr 7 15:31:11 EDT 2012
Second draft of this proposed new definition of "noncommercial". This
second draft removes the phrase "to educational institutions" from the
section on educational use and adds the scenario of selling the
content as well as including it in packages. The purpose of this
change is to address the issue raised by David Chart below, as he
would interpret the original clause as meaning that he could sell
coursepacks including NC materials to students. To be clear, I do not
think that when people use a CC license, they mean to give such
permission. My assumption is that when creators use a Noncommercial
license, the most basic and general interpretation is that selling the
work for private profit is not covered in the CC license.
Full draft below.
Currently, this reads:
(f) NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards
commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. For purposes of
this Public License, the exchange of the Licensed Work by digital file-
sharing or similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment
of monetary compensation in connection with the exchange.
suggested change to:
(f) NonCommercial means not intended for re-sale or re-use of the
Licensed Work for private monetary compensation (for example, as a
means to attract advertising revenue). For purposes of this Public
License, the exchange of the Licensed Work by digital file-sharing or
similar means is NonCommercial provided there is no payment of
monetary compensation in connection with the exchange. For the
avoidance of doubt, educational use - teaching and learning - is
Noncommercial, and permitted by this Public License, while selling the
content for profit, or including the content in a package intended for
sale for profit is Commercial, and prohibited by this Public License.
Web-based or other discovery services that rely on advertising
revenue, such as search engines, may use advertising IN CONNECTION
WITH THEIR SERVICES in connecting searchers to this content; this does
not constitute commercial use of the content. Advertising that
constitutes exploitation of the content for commercial purposes, such
as advertising inserted into a derivative, advertising that readers
are forced to watch before viewing the content, creating the
impression of sponsorship, or advertising that implies that the
creator endorses the advertised product, constitutes commercial use
and is prohibited by this license.
Background:
After re-reading the Executive Summary of the Defining Noncommercial
report, it strikes me that part of the problem with the overly broad
definition of noncommercial stems from lack of understanding of
copyright by most of the population (as noted in this report). The
idea that you cannot use a work if what you are doing is commercial in
nature, from my perspective, suggests that copyright is not just about
expression of ideas, but rather about ideas themselves. I think this
sets a bad precedent, and it would be a good idea for Creative Commons
to steer away from this.
best,
Heather Morrison
hgmorris at sfu.ca
On 6-Apr-12, at 11:29 PM, David Chart wrote:
>
> On 2012/04/05, at 10:29, Heather Morrison wrote:
>
>> For the
>> avoidance of doubt, educational use - teaching and learning - is
>> Noncommercial, and permitted by this Public License, while including
>> the content in a package intended for sale to educational
>> institutions
>> for profit is Commercial, and prohibited by this Public License.
>
> I'd like to reiterate my opposition to this. Education can be
> commercial or non-commercial in the same way as any other activity,
> and can be judged by the same standard: does the educator make money
> off it? Commercial education use strikes me as a clear example of
> commercial use. I think it would be deeply unfair to people who have
> used earlier NC licenses to change the meaning in this way.
>
> Your wording still lets me sell absolutely anything NC as part of a
> "course pack" for a "distance learning course", incidentally. I'm
> selling to the "students", not an educational institution.
>
> --
> David Chart
> http://www.davidchart.com/
>
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