Development of Creative Commons licenses

["J.B. Nicholson-Owens" <jbn AT forestfield.org>]

Umang Kumar wrote:
> If I decide to podcast readings of poetry or literary passages from
> works of famous writers [not mine, from works/books I own], is that
> legal? It is not a reproduction or an electronic distribution...

I think that would be a public performance of the poem which is one of the 
activities regulated by copyright law in many countries.  Thus, I think that the 
question should focus on how the poetry is licensed -- is it licensed so that 
you can publicly perform the work?  Or is the poetry is in the public domain? 
If the poetry is licensed so that you can publicly perform it, or if the poetry 
is in the public domain you will not be committing copyright infringement.

Buying a copy of a book of poetry usually does not give you the license you need 
to perform the work publicly or make a derivative work based on the poem. 
CC-licensed books of poetry would be an obvious exception.