Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Henri Sivonen <hsivonen AT iki.fi>]

On Jan 24, 2006, at 12:32, Henri Sivonen wrote:

> Can we use a CC license to permit derivative works to the extent
> creating such a work would infringe on our copyright while being
> silent on whatever decency rights the depicted people have? That is,
> is it clear that the grants of the CC licenses are confined to
> copyright and do not allow the kinds of derivatives that would
> infringe on the rights of anyone depicted? Would we be granting a
> license to something that is not ours to grant if we allowed
> derivatives? (Examples of derivatives that I believe we don't have
> the right to authorize include pornography, sampling the voices to
> produce forged speech and use of people's likeness in advertising.)
>
> Do we need the nc license element just in case?

I'm wondering whether my question was too stupid so no one bothered  
to answer or whether my question relates to a can of worms no one  
wants to touch.

Another scenario:
There are a lot of photos on Flickr that depict people and are  
licensed under CC licenses that permit derivative works. Presumably  
the photographers chose the licenses and have not asked what the  
people appearing in the photos think about it.

Is it clear that whatever grant a photographer is offering by the  
means of a CC license is limited to a grant under the photographer's  
copyright and it is up to whoever is exercising rights under that  
grant to make sure the derivative does not violate any rights of the  
people appearing in the photo? If someone takes such a picture and  
creates a derivative work that defames a depicted person, is it clear  
that the photographer is not liable for granting a right that was not  
his to grant?

--
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen AT iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/