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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Heather Morrison <hgmorris AT sfu.ca>
  • To: Development of Creative Commons licenses <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [cc-licenses] Version 4:0: second draft suggested change to definition of "noncommercial"
  • Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 12:31:11 -0700

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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