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cc-licenses - Re: public domain question

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: "J.B. Nicholson-Owens" <jbn AT forestfield.org>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: public domain question
  • Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:51:06 -0600

MM Robinson wrote:
I'm an artist working on a project concerned with copyrights and I have a question that was not covered in the FAQ. If I use a public domain dedication, does that make the material "uncopyrightable"? In other words, can someone else legally copyright material that I, as the creator, dedicate to the public domain?

As I understand it, the answer is no: what others can do is build on the work and retain (talking from the perspective of citizens of countries that ratify the Bern treaty) the copyright for their additional elements. Depending on the kind of work this is, of course, the PD portion in the derivative can be extracted and used freely.

So, if I make a copy of the Mona Lisa and add in an image of a new deluxe automobile in the background, someone else can deal with the rest of the untouched image as they would any other work in the public domain.

There are different issues with different forms of expression in how practical it is to extract a PD portion of a work. In a painting, this might be easy, less so with an audio recording, lesser still with a computer program. Yet all of these are copyrightable works. And, of course, the CC organization doesn't recommend their copyright licenses for computer programs.



  • public domain question, MM Robinson, 01/31/2005
    • Re: public domain question, J.B. Nicholson-Owens, 01/31/2005

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