[Cc-uk] Remix Reading legal advice

lnu01eg at reading.ac.uk lnu01eg at reading.ac.uk
Wed Oct 20 14:07:22 EDT 2004


Dear CC-UK list, 
 
I'm emailing you on behalf of the Remix Reading project. We are 
about 80% ready – we are currently finishing up the text and eagerly 
awaiting the CC-UK license to come out.  We were hoping that you 
would be able to answer a few legal questions that we have in the 
mean time.  
 
1)We are not sure if we should be using the CC-UK licenses or the US 
(or generic) CC licenses for work uploaded onto the web site. This 
is because all work will be hosted on ibiblio which is based in 
America. Most work will be uploaded from Reading, UK, and it seems 
silly to be using the US licenses, however we will if it is 
necessary. 
 
2)Who is liable if a user uploads a piece of coyrighted work (which 
isnt his own copyright) and puts it under a creative commons license 
on Remix Reading? e.g. If someone uploads a Michael Jackson track 
and claims it to be their own under a CC license. Please bear in 
mind that ibibilo are hosting the website in America. What would 
happen if a record company approached us and said that there was 
some of their copyrighted material on our website? 
 
3)In the future we are planning on pressing CDs of music uploaded 
onto Remix Reading. What would happen if a record company approached 
us and said that one or more of the tracks that were on a cd were 
infringing on their copyright?  
 
4)In the future we are also planning on having gigs/art exhibitions 
etc with work uploaded on Remix Reading. We  will have to charge 
people entrance fees for the gigs etc to at least cover our costs 
for hiring the venue and publicity (Potentially, if we make any 
money,  we could also put it back into the Remix Reading project). 
For us to do this, do we have to insist that people allow their work 
to be used for commercial use if we want to perform it? I can 
imagine trying to secure the rights to a work that is based on ten 
levels of remixes to be a huge headache. Or will it be okay for us 
to display/perform works which are under a non-commercial license as 
long as the profits are only used to cover our costs? Or maybe we 
could distribute any profits made to all the artists involved? 
 
5)Adult and offensive material – we dont think there will be a 
problem with adult material being uploaded onto the website – but it 
could potentially happen. Should we be providing disclaimers for 
adult material, and how would we decide where to draw the line? What 
should we be doing about the potentiality of illegal adult material 
like child pornography being uploaded onto the site? 
 
Thanks for any help that you give us. In the future, before the 
website is put up on the net, we would be appreciative if you could 
read through it and give any suggestions/criticisms. 
 
We would also like to put the answers in the FAQ of the website – if 
you object to that please say. 
 
Thanks again and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to 
ask, 
 
Edward Griffith-Jones 
Remix Reading  
 


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