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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] specific questions about the CC licenses

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: "Jonathon Blake" <jonathon.blake AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts" <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] specific questions about the CC licenses
  • Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:54:27 +0000

TK wrote:

does it apply only to France or all French speaking countries and even to
any countries (I plan to have the books in different languages and people

Applies worldwide. If you use the French languge version, that would
be the applicable licence.

If you negotiate witht eh original authors/illustrators/translators,
you can (in theory) relese the material with a similar licence in the
language/country of your target translation.

could decide to get a book in a specific language that is not the national
language) ?

You'd have to negotiate with the indivdiual authors, and illustrators,
if you want to change the licence for teh country/language that the
material is translated into. [Probably also need to get permission
from the translators to do that.]

How do we know it will be valid and enforced ?

You will have to enforce it yourself --- which the case with the
standard "all rights reserved" licence.

2. The books will include a fairly important part of illustrations: Should I
use then both the text and image license at the same time for each book ?

It is less confusing for readers, if the text, and illustrations have
the same licence. You can licence the text and illustrations under
different licences. The easiest way to handle that, is to have a
chapter "Licences", that lists each illustration, and the licence that
it uses, and each chapter, and the licence that it uses. Clumsy, but
it signifies that different parts of the work are licenced
differently.

3. About the non commercial aspect: I understand that I can decide to sell
or not our products but someone else cannot resell/sell our content, correct

This is where you need to go thru the contract with a lawyer who
specializes in both intellectual property rights, and contract law.

About six months ago I came to the realization the current CC
guidelines about the NC licence permit some organizations to sell the
material for a profit. [The previous guidelines were slightly less
clear, that commercial sales under some circumstances were permitted.]
e
4. Do we need an express authorization of every author when it is a multi
authors book or only the publishing decides and authorizes the use of the
license ?

What does your contract with the authors say? As a courtesy, I'd
suggest getting that authorization, even if the contract doesn't
require it.

5. Sharealike: I udnerstand that under this specific license
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, someone can make
derivatives product BUT not sell them (ie, the modifications or the
derivative product, correct ?

That is the probable intent of the NC licence.

However, the current CC guidelines about the NC licence do have that
clause that permits retail sales, by some organizations.

So yes, a derivative work could ( theoretically) be made, and
distributed under the SA-NC licence, and sold in a retail venue, for a
profit.

6. Can my publishing company sell those derivatives by default or do I need
to negotiate this point with the author(s) of the modifications ?

The ethical thing to do, would be to negotiate with the persom who
made those modifications.

However, if you are willing to test legal waters, you can take
advantage of that clause that permits some organizations to sell the
material for a profit. [ Depending upon how you do it, you may or may
not win the court case.]

7. Finally but not least, can someone just print the on line content or
scan the books and reprint them and give them away for free or at not
profit, ie, still sell it but at cost ?

The NC licence permits free re-distribution.

Hollywood film accountants can demonstrate how loose the term "sell at
cost" is. A movie can "cost" $5000000 to make, have first week
ticket sales of $25000000, and gross revenue of $250000000, and still
not recouped the cost of making the movie, much less shown either a
gross, or net profit. [This is all using GAAP ]

There are three sides on this issue.

i) The group that thinks that the NC licence prohibits selling,
regardless of whether it is done at a profit, loss, or break even;

ii) The group that thinks the NC licence permits selling, at cost,
under some circumstances;

iii) The group that think that the NC licence allows selling, under
some circumstances, regardless of profit, or loss of such
sales.licence ;

Drew wrote:

Why the desire for the NC option?

TK can best explain why he wants to use it.

Royalty payments would probably be on the top of the list.

Religious -- and some educational -- publishers are willing for
material to be released with an NC licence, in the hope that it spurs
sales of their other material.

But I would be very interested to hear some business model in publishing
using CC and less restrictive license. Is there a place where I find some
stories/experience on this

I think everybody is trying to find a viable business model
selling/distributing/using CC material.

xan

jonathon
--
Ethical conduct is a vice.
Corrupt conduct is a virtue.

Motto of Nacarima




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