Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] BY-NC-SA (International) 3.0 Draft 1 Comments

cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Rob Myers <rob AT robmyers.org>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] BY-NC-SA (International) 3.0 Draft 1 Comments
  • Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:14:01 +0100


On 13 Aug 2006, at 23:09, Peter Brink wrote:

Rob Myers skrev:
Notes by section:

1 b

I assume that the concept of "adaptation" is a genericisation of
"derivative". But Berne uses the term "derivative", and "adaptation"
is listed as a kind of derivative. If this is a grey area how about
something like GPL-3's "a work based on the program", for example "a
new work based on the licensed work" or "a new work containing some
or all of the licensed work".


Frankly, I find "adaptation" an much more intuitive term than
"derivative". The term "derivative" to me implies that the rights to a
work, that can be traced, even in a very minor way, back to an other
authors work, is dependent on the rights to the original work, and this
may very well not be the case. In fact, from my POW, the the usage of
the term "derivative" implies an unfair _extension_ of the rights of the
copyright holder.

Further, for people with little knowledge about copyright law, the term
"adaptation" also points in the right direction (in most cases - the
U.S. being a notable exception). If they would look the word
"adaptation" up in a dictionary they would get an explanation which is
pretty close to the actual legal term used in their national copyright law.

So, to me, the usage of "adaptation" makes the license more clear and
less ambiguous.

I do remember the first time I got into a debate about what a "derivative" was, and it's not a term that people seem to get without explanation. If "adaptation" is clearer then that should be used instead.

For me personally the problem with "adaptation" is that it I'm used to a use of the word that is more limited than "derivative". So "adaptation" would just mean a television or film version of a book. And in fact the dictionary that I am looking at uses this definition. It does not mean a sample of a piece of music used to make another piece of music, for example.

But this is my opinion rather than any sort of legal argument. I think the important thing for the International license is that "adaptation" is a subset of "derivation" in Bern. If that is legally harmless and using "adaptation" is clearer and doesn't preclude sampling then OK.

- Rob.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page