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cc-licenses - Re: How do I waive attribution rights?

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: James Grimmelmann <james.grimmelmann AT yale.edu>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: How do I waive attribution rights?
  • Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 10:16:05 -0700

At 11:49 PM 6/17/2004, Evan Prodromou wrote:
On Fri, 2004-06-18 at 01:48, Nathan Jones wrote:

> What is the recommended way to waive attribution rights? Say I
> licence a play under Attribution-NoDerivs; how do I make it clear that
> people don't have to mention me on the program, or other reproduction,
> despite the big "BY" image on the licence?
>
> Or is there not a recommended way?

I don't speak for Creative Commons; just another list member.

I don't speak for Creative Commons, either.

It's been mentioned that this could be done, either under the
"revocation" clause of section 4a, or the "if supplied" phrase of
section 4b. However, nobody's really made it clear what the mechanics
are for waiving your attribution requirement.

The removal clause in 4(a) of the Attribution-NoDerivs license only applies to collective works; I don't read that language as dealing with verbatim reproductions. It's also more in the way of an open disavowal than a simple waiver of the requirement for attribution. If I had to ground a waiver in some place in the license, I'd choose the "if supplied" langauge in 4(b).

It seems like the main way to do it is simply not to supply a name,
title, and licensing URI for the work.

I think this approach frees the recipients from the attribution requirement. It also doesn't stop them from doing some research, figuring out your name, and putting your name back in on the work when they distribute it. You may or may not want that.

Another way would be, when you
give license notification ("This work is available under the blah-blah
license"), say something like, "I request that you not use my name or
the title of this work."

I think this language means you want the work go out anonymous. If you don't want that, but instead want people to have the option not to name you, you could say, "You may use either [my name] or no name to identify the author of this work." Does that seem like a reasonable solution?

James





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