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cc-licenses - Re: Question: What does sublicense mean?

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Peter Brink <peter.brink AT brinkdata.se>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Question: What does sublicense mean?
  • Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 23:14:59 +0200

drew Roberts skrev:

Who said under different terms? Did you look at the link? Do you know that the restriction mentioned must refer to different terms? If so, please clear that point up for the rest of us if you can.


The point with the restriction on sublicenses is to make clear that only those parties who either publish original works or derivative works are allowed to issue a license.

If Alice publishes a poem under a CC license and Bernie distributes copies of said poem on his website, then Claire -who downloads the poem from Bernie's website, and translates Alice's poem to French and later on publishes the translation (a derivative work) on her website - has no contractual obligations to Bernie. Claire's licensor is Alice. Bernie is not allowed to issue a sublicense for Alice's poem. If Bernie later publishes Claire's poem as well as Alice's he has two license agreements, one with Alice and one with Claire. The reason why: Claire has published a derivative work.


The site in question says you can't include a CC BY work in a "royalty-free music collection" ("This music may not be resold as part of a royalty-free music collection.")

Couldn't a collection on CD of CC BY and BY-SA songs be considered a "royalty-free music collection?" You could make free use of them so long as you abided by the BY and BY-SA conditions could you not? Or does "royalty-free music collection" have some special legal or industry meaning that some of us are not aware of?


A creator of a work may of course offer you to use his work under any terms he wishes, but then he may not use the name Creative Commons or use the CC logo.

IMHO Royalty Free Music is adding a term to the license when they stipulate that the music "may not be resold as a part of a royalty-free music collection", and as long as they are the original copyright holders of the music the offer, they are free to do so - but then they may not use the CC logo or claim to be using a CC license.


/Peter Brink





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