Creative Commons - Belgium

[Hannelore Dekeyser <hannelore.dekeyser AT law.kuleuven.ac.be>]

Q6.  Future forms of exploitation

Art. 3 §1 alinea 6 of the Copyright law states that contracts whereby 
the author transfers his rights with regard to unknown forms of 
exploitation are void.

This rule is why art. 3 last paragraph of the CCPL is modified, I suppose.

The original CCPL says "The above rights may be exercised in all media 
and formats whether now known or hereafter devised."
The BE-CCPL limits this to media and formats known today.

Was this modification absolutely necessary?

It depends partly on the interpretation of the term media.
The term 'media' might mean the physical support on which the work is 
stored.  In the future, new physical supports will be invented.  But 
using such a new physical support, doesn't have to imply that this is a 
new form of exploitation.  What does it matter if a file is stored on a 
disk, a CD-ROM or a DVD?

New formats don't imply new forms of exploitation either.

The term 'media' can also mean channel to distribute information, like 
radio, television and internet.  If a new channel is invented, then 
there will probably be new forms of exploitation.

A possible alternative might be:
"The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now 
known or hereafter devised, with the exception of
forms of exploitation unknown at the time this licence was given."

However, it is unclear how a licensee will find out when the original 
Author licenced the work.

This is a tough one.

Hannelore