Creative Commons Canada

[Marcus Bornfreund <marcus AT uottawa.ca>]

There will come a time when you believe everything  is finished. That will be the beginning. 
- Louis L'Amour

Hi everyone. We here at iCommons Canada have been ruminating on the issue of whether or not moral rights should be included in the Canadian CC licence as a default protection and have come to what we hope will be a reasonable solution. Existing  functionality does not allow a creator to choose to retain or waive their moral rights when completing the licence generation form. As a result, a moral rights waiver or non-waiver must be encoded into the master licence or not mentioned at all. 

After much discussion with Canadian copyright experts, we are have decided to err on the side of greater creator protection by including an assertion of moral rights in works licensed under the Canadian Creative Commons licence 2.0.

But please don't think that we aren't sensitive to the protection of user (downstream creator) interests. In the commons, creators are also users and users, creators. We understand the want for legal certainty in securing the ability to use, modify and/or redistribute the works which will populate the Canadian creative commons. Moreover, at the end of the day reasonableness must prevail: protecting creators is ultimately just as important as protecting users. 

As soon as the infrastructure and our resources allow it, iCommons Canada in collaboration with Creative Commons, will implement functionality to allow creators to waive in whole, or in part, their moral rights. This is a promise. It was never our intention to forever insist upon nor ban the waiver of moral rights, we are simply working within the existing constraints. We are doing our best.

So let's be reasonable. Let's work with the resources available but, most importantly, let's work together in solidarity - that way everybody wins. 
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Marcus Bornfreund
 
Manager / Part-time Professor: 
Law & Technology Program  <http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/tech/>
 
Faculty of Law : Faculté de droit
Common Law Section : Section Common Law
University of Ottawa : Université d'Ottawa
57 Louis Pasteur Street
Ottawa, ON CANADA K1N 6N5
 
t.  613/562-5800 x3299
f.  613/562-5124
e.  marcus AT uottawa.ca
 
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