Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Wrye Modder <wrye_modder AT yahoo.com>]

--- Peter Brink <peter.brink AT brinkdata.se> wrote:
> A derivative work is a work that transforms the expressions found in 
> another work. If a work reuses expressions from another work that are 
> not in themselves works then the result is _not_ a derivative work.

You're using a standard of transformation as the measure of derivation, but I
see no basis for that in the CC licenses, nor do I know of one in copyright
law. Certainly transformation would be sufficient as a measure of derivation,
but it's not necessary. Were transformation the defining characteristic
separating collections from derivations, then that could easily have been
stated in the CC license. It is not. Moreover the inclusion of music synced to
a movie in the definition of Derivation -- not as an "exemption" or "special
case", but merely as a "clarification" -- clearly indicates that it is not
necessary for a work to be transformed in order to count as derivative.
(Syncing doesn't transform the music, it merely places the move within the
movie, the same way an image tag places an image within a web page.)

> A collage may or may not be a derivative work. It all depends on whether 
> the parts "borrowed" from other works are identifiable as parts of a 
> specific work.

I don't agree with this, but in any case it's not very germane to the question
-- the whole point of a collage is that the original pieces are present in
large enough pieces to make them recognizable as distinct pieces in themselves
-- which almost certainly would make them identifiable when matched against
the original work. 

--- Evan Prodromou <evan AT bad.dynu.ca> wrote:
> A derivative work takes parts or the whole of one or more other works
> and combines them with possibly new material to make a single, cohesive
> whole. Examples of derivative works: a sequel (takes characters and
> story line), a collage, an annotated novel, a mash-up, a re-mix, fan
> fiction, a movie based on a novel.

Exactly. E.g., suppose that I wrote an article on Tom Jones (the singer) and
then someone else wrote another article, and then those, as separate
documents, along with separate pictures of Tom Jones were distributed on a
disk. That would be a collection. But if there was just the single article and
the images were selected and matched to the text to illustrate and strengthen
the points of the text, then the text would no longer be independent of the
pictures. I.e., the work of text + photos would be a derivative work of the
original photo.

..Wrye


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