Creative Commons Canada

[Russell McOrmond <russell AT flora.ca>]

  Sorry to repeat myself, but I'm a bit surprised at the direction things 
are taking.

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004, Ian wrote:

> Creative Commons is a creator-centric licensing scheme.

  There are two possible creators here: the creator of the original work, 
and the creator of a possible derivative work.  Their needs are quite 
different, and my understanding has always been that CC licenses are 
about "peer distribution" (follow-on distribution) and "peer production" 
(follow-on creation).


> Its primary purpose is to satisfy the needs and wants of creators.

  That can be said to be the primary purpose of copyright law, with CC 
licenses being the utilization of the elegance of copyright to shift the 
balance from first-creators to follow-on creativity and follow-on 
distribution.

> CC licences also benefit users and society, and we want to maximize
> these benefits as much as possible.  But, the users come first.  The
> bottom line is: the Canadian Creative Commons will not automatically
> waive a creator's right without concrete evidence that this is desired
> by the majority of creators.

  It is my understanding that the purpose of the iCommons Canada project
was to implement the US Creative Commons licenses within Canadian law.  
What seems to be happening is that a different (and likely quite
incompatible) set of licenses are going to be created which will confuse
the marketplace.  Few Canadians adequately understand the material rights 
in copyright, and moral rights throw them off even more.

  If you watch the videos at CreativeCommons.org you get the impression
that once you find a work that is licensed under a CC license, you are
allowed to conduct yourself according to the license without ever having
to worry about further restrictions from the past author.  If you are
the majority of us, who are likely to be follow-on creators and follow-on
distributors, the certainty of not having one of those "giants" you are
standing on the shoulders of coming back to haunt you is considerable.


  If moral rights are kept intact, then none of the videos are true and 
using a CCC license is only a ticking time bomb before someone does 
something authorized by the license but for subjective reasons of some 
past creator becomes unauthorized.


  I know that as things stand I will continue to use the US CC licenses
(both use works licensed in, and license my own works in) with the hope
that they would be interpreted by a judge as moral rights waived.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Petition for Users' Rights, Protect Internet creativity and innovation
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