Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Mia Garlick <mia AT creativecommons.org>]

just to follow up on an earlier question that i didn't respond to  
that seems to be relevant to the debate here - in terms of the  
license v. contract debate, i don't think there is an official cc  
position. opinions differ and the relevant one will be the courts  
when the argument is made...

On Apr 26, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Terry Hancock wrote:

> Peter Brink wrote:
>
> > Well put Harry,
> >
> > Just one minor point...
> >
> > Terry Hancock skrev:
> > > That is the standard of ordinary "All Rights Reserved" works, and
> > > the ND clause preserves that standard (it cannot, IMHO, extend it --
> > > under copyright law, the author does not own what is not (in the
> > > legal sense) *derived* from their work, hence they have no ownership
> > > authority to impose such requirements).
> >
> > One party can always agree (under the freedom of contract) to  
> > treat an
> > adaptation of a work as a "derivative work" even if it really isn't.
> > Thus, in theory, an open source/content license could actually extend
> > the scope of the legal concept "derivative works". However such an
> > extension would only affect those bound by the contract, third  
> > parties
> > are still (of course) unaffected.
> Well, that raises the legal question of whether a CC license
> is a "license" or a "contract" -- again. ;-)
>
> Mia Garlick says it's a contract, Eben Moglen says it can't be
> (the same conditions apply as for the GPL).  Ms. Garlick
> represents CC, though.
>
> Personally, I think it's a bad idea to start thinking of any of
> these licenses as "contracts".  Anyway, even if they are, IIRC,
> there's some language in there that specifically limits the
> scope to the existing scope of copyright law.
>
> Yep, here it is. Taken from the "Legal Code" for the By-NC-ND:
>
> """
> *2. Fair Use Rights.* Nothing in this license is intended to reduce,
> limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or  
> other
> limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under
> copyright law or other applicable laws.
> """
>
> Cheers,
> Terry
>
> --
> Terry Hancock (hancock AT AnansiSpaceworks.com)
> Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
>
>
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