Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Greg London" <email AT greglondon.com>]

What Terry said.

> On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 22:53:45 +0200
> Henri Sivonen <hsivonen AT iki.fi> wrote:
>> 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?
>
> As you say, it isn't up to you to grant a "model release" or
> right to use someone's likeness (e.g. of a celebrity, who
> can sue over such use).  AFAIK, that sort of issue is
> completely orthogonal to your copyright in the image
> itself, so you can reasonably use a CC license that allows
> derivation, and none of this falls on your head.
>
> OTOH, it *is* a bit of a can of worms, because it's very
> likely that users of your material are not aware of this
> legal issue or haven't thought of it.  So it would probably
> be a service to them for you to explicitly disclaim
> responsibility for releases, likeness-usage, and so on
> in the works (I'm not really using the right language here
> -- you can probably find some boilerplate for it on the web
> somewhere. Or of course, you could ask a lawyer ;-) ).
>
> NASA has something like this. Being produced purely on
> government funding, most NASA images are "Copyright Free"
> which is sort of like "Public Domain" and sort of like
> "CC-By", but they do specifically mention that you may be
> limited in your use of certain images, such as astronaut's
> likenesses.
>
> For example, it would be illegal to use a picture of a Space
> Shuttle astronaut and Gimp-in an image of a product that you
> are selling. That's because you're implying an endorsement,
> and so you'd have to get that astronaut's permission to "use
> his likeness" in that way.
>
> OTOH, it's perfectly legal to display your product in front
> of a deep sky image from Hubble Space Telescope (and you'll
> see lots of examples of that in print and web advertising).
>
> So, in short, my assessment is that you're all right, but it
> might be good to mention this problem to visitors, if the
> material is likely to raise such issues.
>
> However, in all of these cases, its the person who makes the
> inappropriate use of the material who gets the heat for it,
> you are not liable for releasing it under a license that
> allows distribution.
>
> The laws in question aren't really copyright laws, but
> rather laws governing specific kinds of expression --
> exceptions to freedom-of-speech protections based on such
> issues as libel, fraud, etc.
>
> This is from my knowledge of United States law. In
> Europe and other places, the situation may be different (in
> Europe, I believe these things might get mixed up with
> so-called "moral right" of the images' authors, though I
> imagine that likenesses are still protected somehow).
>
> And lastly, I Am Not A Lawyer.
>
> Cheers,
> Terry
>
>  --
> Terry Hancock (hancock AT AnansiSpaceworks.com)
> Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-licenses mailing list
> cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-licenses
>


-- 
Bounty Hunters: Metaphors for Fair IP laws
http://www.greglondon.com/bountyhunters/