Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Melanie Dulong de Rosnay" <melanie.dulong-de-rosnay AT medialive.fr>]

Hello,

Under French law also, US Federal law licenses are designated as 'contrats'.
A French 'licence' is a particular type of contract, mostly addressing
trademarks and software.
However in the Common Deed, we plan to use the word 'licence', as it is
widely used, even if the correct legal term is 'contrat'.

Melanie
International Commons in France

-----Message d'origine-----
De : cc-licenses-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:cc-licenses-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]De la part de Wouter
Vanden hove
Envoyé : mardi 22 juin 2004 04:26
À : cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
Objet : License or Contract?


Eben Moglen always clearly described the GNU GPL as a license, not a
contract:
"The GPL, however, is a true copyright license: a unilateral permission,
in which no obligations are reciprocally required by the licensor."

http://lwn.net/Articles/61292/
http://zgp.org/linux-elitists/1060888997.27938.45.camel AT localhost.localdomai
n.html

I always thought the same of the Creative Commons Licenses.

However in the recently launched Dutch Version
(http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/nl)
of the CC Licenses, the licenses are described as contracts:

"The mere exercise of rights to the work does not suffice under Dutch
law to conclude a contract.
The additional provision `provided that the (content of the) Licence has
been made sufficiently clear
to the recipient beforehand' is required under Dutch law for the legal
validity of the conclusion of a contract.

See http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/nl/english-changes.pdf

When I buy a book in holland, I don't have to read/sign the "All right
reserved"-clause anymore than in any other country.
Sure there may be differences in contract law between the US and
Holland, but if the CC-licenses are not a contracts, why would this matter?

What are the opinions on "License versus Contract" in the other European
CC-Projects?


Wouter Vanden Hove
www.vrijschrift.org
www.opencursus.org






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