Development of Creative Commons licenses

[drew Roberts <zotz AT 100jamz.com>]

On Friday 07 April 2006 11:49 am, Terry Hancock wrote:
> Sincaglia, Nicolas wrote:
> >If one wants to license a work that is co-owned by multiple copyright
> >holders, one only needs permission from one of the co-owners to license
> >the work and negotiate the terms of the license. The licensee will need
> >to pay royalties to all of the owners but requires only one owner's
> >permission.
>
> Surely, you would need "controlling" interest in the work?
>
> In, for example, real estate law, there is a concept of "controlling"
> and "participating" interest in a property. I would imagine the
> same concept to apply to non-real property (I mean it seems
> logical -- but I don't know).
>
> With business stocks ("common stock"?) you normally need
> to have a majority share to be able to control the company. Of
> course, there are also classes of stock that don't confer voting
> power in the corporation (I think this is usually -- ironically -- called
> "preferred stock"). (Not only am I not a lawyer, I'm also
> not even slightly qualified in business finance, though).

It has been a long time, but IIRC, preferred stock is preferred because if 
dividends are to be paid, they get paid first (at a fixed rate) and only 
after they have been paid does the remainder of the profit, if any, get 
divided amoung the holders of common stock.
>
> Perhaps such agreements specifically confer licensing control
> to the company?  That would mean that the company could take
> it private, but if they make money selling it, you'd at least have to
> be paid for your work.  Some people would probably be happy
> with that, I suppose.
>
> I would also imagine these kind of details to vary by jurisdiction!
>
> >Obviously the co-owners could have an agreement between themselves that
> >could limit each others ability to license the work without the others
> >permission but as a licensee, this is not your concern.
>
> I think both the O.P. and I are both interested as potential
> contributors/owners, not licensees.  (If you look at his sig, he's
> from a university department -- I suspect he wants to set
> licensing terms for published papers).
>
> Cheers,
> Terry

all the best,

drew
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