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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] Case study: Magnatune

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera AT zmsl.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] Case study: Magnatune
  • Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:39:19 +0000

wiki_tomos wrote:
What is licensed is certain rights in all the creative expression fixed in the mp3 file, but some more subtle creative expressions are fixed in wav file only. The latter is not licensed.

This might be a valid argument. In addition, you can say that the MP3 is a derivative of the WAV and that makes them different. Assuming this interpretation is correct, that would mean that, back to the OpenOffice user guide example:

* I can give you a PDF version under CC and sell you the OpenDocument version without CC.
(because the PDF derives from the OpenDocumnet original)

* I CANNOT do the converse. If I give you the OpenDocument file under a CC license, and sell you a PDF file, I cannot tell you that you can't use the PDF file under the CC terms.

Why? Because all the expression in the OpenDocument file is contained in the PDF file, and because the PDF file is a derivative.

This is the apparent consequence of attaching the license to "the work" instead of "the file". It sort of makes sense in practice, because you could perfectly well grab the OpenDocument file and make your own PDF, or grab the WAV file and make an MP3; but you can't go in the other direction.

I think it is somewhat like different copies of the same book (same edition, from the same publisher) that are priced differently in different locations.

Irrelevant. The price has nothing to do with the license. I can sell you OpenOffice.org for $10 or you can download it for free. The work itself, OpenOffice.org, is still LGPL.

Cheers,
Daniel.
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