Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Daniel" <dbuckles AT sympatico.ca>]

Title: author/copyright holder

Creative Commons friends,

It is not clear to me what distinctions to make between author and copyright holder, especially when there are multiple authors. It is possible and advisable to include all authors as copyright holders? It seems that the convention in many published works is for a single institution or individual to hold the copyright, even when attribution of the work is to multiple authors (edited books by authors with copyright held by the publisher). I believe this is to facilitate waiving of copyright and changes to the copyright conditions at some later date by the publisher or other single party.

What are good practices in this regard, and what are the options/implications of multiple copyright holders? Are all authors automatically copyright holders, and should their names appear as such (in addition to being included as part of the citation). Creative Commons sight seems to assume a single copyright holder, with attribution to multiple authors.

Regards,

Daniel Buckles, Phd.

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Seventh Floor, Loeb Building

Carleton University

1125 Colonel By Drive

Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6

(613) 722-8048

dbuckles AT sympatico.ca