[Cc-uk] CC-UK v.4.07/ CA v.8.2 [request for comments]

Rob Myers robmyers at mac.com
Wed Oct 27 07:10:35 EDT 2004


On Wednesday, October 27, 2004, at 00:49AM, Prodromos Tsiavos <prodromos.tsiavos at socio-legal-studies.oxford.ac.uk> wrote:

>In particular, we have not reached an agreement in relation to the following 
>items:
>(a)	territoriality: the BBC ? Creative Archive licence is granted only 
>within the UK, whereas the CC-UK is a worldwide licence. 

I'd love to see the BBC get content back from worldwide users. Much better ROI. Have they seen that the Dutch parliament has voted to make Dutch public service TV public domain?
If the BBC are constrained to a UK-only license, the shared language could refer to the "territory" or "scope" (or whatever a good legal term meaning "zone" is) of the license. CC-CA could define the territory as "The UK", CC-UK could define the territory as "The World".

>(b)	Non ? Endorsement: BBC has introduced an extra Licence Element that is 
>making sure that the material released under a Creative Archive license is not 
>endorsed by the BBC, i.e. the Work should not be used in any way that would 
>suggest or imply the BBC?s support, association or approval. This is the reason 
>why the licence will be called the Creative Archive Public Licence and no 
>mention of the BBC will be made. 

Is there a "right to endorsement" that needs limiting in this way? The BBC explicitly aren't licensing their name or identity. IIRC, back in the 1980s the BBC cease-and-desisted some software companies for using the BBC logo to advertise software for the BBC micro without permission. I think trademark and trade description law should suffice here.

>(c)	Non ? Commercial: this is the most difficult issue in relation to the 
>harmonization of the two licences. BBC?s clause includes only personal use and 
>excludes among others ?institutional, political or promotional uses?. The CC 
>2.0 excludes any use ?that is primarily intended for or directed toward 
>commercial advantage or private monetary compensation?. The BBC definition is 
>much narrower (in relation to the permitted uses) and hence more restrictive 
>than the CC 2.0. The BBC is willing to abolish the personal use and move the 
>political and institutional elements to the ?Non-Endorsement?provision but is 
>not willing (right now) to accept the US definition. They are afraid that it 
>allows indirect commercial uses. So, we are looking for alternative definitions 
>and any suggestion is welcome!

Surely one of the BBC's largest intended markets is the education sector. Disallowing institutional noncommercial use means that a graphic designer can practice their commercial video editing skills by remixing CA footage in their spare time but that 12-year old schoolchildren will be unable to make their own documentaties about marmosets after watching the BBC's schools programmes during class. 

Political use is an interesting one. I think that non-endorsement implicitly isolates the BBC from this. Each party would be equally free to use CA work without dragging the BBC's name in to it. 

>I have argued to the BBC that asking for more restrictive controls in the Non-
>Commercial definition is not really compatible with the Non-Endorsement clause: 
>if the Creative Archive material is not to be associated with the BBC then the 
>latter should not have any control over it either, therefore the political and 
>institutional restrictions should not be included. I have not managed to pass 
>the message as yet but will keep trying.  

One problem with any restriction (non-endorsement, Integrity) is that you are asserting downstream control of derived work. You are taking editorial control. At some point, someone, somewhere, is going to get you some very negative publicity for objecting to use A of your work, when you have allowed (or more probably not noticed) use XXXX of your work. It costs money to police each extra policy on downstream work. Extra restrictions may discourage uptake. These are all good reasons for the non-endorsement agreement being on the side of the contributor, not the user. :-)

>2. Jonathan Mitchell has repeatedly and very correctly raised the jurisdiction 
>issue. The version I am currently posting contains only the England and Wales 
>jurisdictions but this should be just one of the three available options. I am 
>open to suggestions on how we should implement the three UK jurisdiction 
>options. What would be the substantial differences in each jurisdiction in 
>terms of the text of the licence? Any other concrete suggestions for how we 
>could implement the three jurisdictions? 

Have a submenu in the license chooser, below UK for En/Wa, Scot and NI?

Without wishing to sound too silly, what happens when the UK breaks up or becomes departments of Europe? 

>Please let me know what you think. 

CC-UK:

This is still becoming even clearer and more succinct with each new version.

1. Good to see URL defined.

2. Can This be made multi-sentence for increased clarity?

2.1.3 "any technological measures digital rights management"

2.1.4 Is it worth waiving Paternity and restoring only the specific Attribution rights to ensure a good match to the CC-BY terms?

2.1.5 Ddo

2.3(.1?). CC-UK licenses are therefore "leaky" to CC-BBC-CA works. Since they must be NC I don't think this is too bad, but there are a couple of problems:
CC-UK doesn't warrant authority to contribute, CC-BBC-CA does. I think this is a major incompatibility
CC-UK waives integrity, CC-BBC-CA doesn't. This may interact.
cc-UK allows global use, CC-BBC-CA doesn't. So I can import a work from a jurisdiction that allows equivalent licenses to be used, combine it with CA work, then not re-export the results. Doesn't this break any treaties? :-)

2.54 This is The Right Thing to do in the context of this license.

2.6 This is similar to BY-NC-SA-2.0's 4d/4e, and I assume the non-NC will be similar to CC-BY-SA-2.0's 3e/3f which waive the exclusive right to collect.

7.1 This is still the draconian IP license that Debian found objectionable. Can it be removed, or can it be clarified to not affect fair dealing/use?

- Rob


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