Development of Creative Commons licenses

[rob AT robmyers.org]

Quoting Jessica Coates <j2.coates AT qut.edu.au>:

> - re the suggestion that 'fair use' could be used to allow ordinary use
> without changing the DRM clause - this only works in the US, with its open
> ended fair use clause (or other countries with an open private use or
> equivalent exception - which a lot of countries don't have).

This is a good point. So the license would have to explicitly allow adding DRM
to enable people in these countries to do so.

> For example,
> current Australian law, with its limited fair dealing provisions, doesn't
> allow people to copy music they own onto their ipods unless it's for
> research and study etc (don't worry we're fixing it).

We don't have an explicit Fair Dealing right in the UK but an industry
representative made a statement saying it's OK. If we view DRM as just another
kind of file format or codec, we can add DRM when we're ripping. But if adding
DRM is a special case in law, we might not be able to.

> Besides, I thought
> that the DMCA TPM provisions trumped fair use?

They do, but they cover the *removal* of DRM, not the *addition* of 
DRM. So you
could add DRM under Fair Use, which would then remove your fair use rights.

> - re the 'adaptation' debate - this term definitely has a clear legal
> definition in Australia, which probably wouldn't include all the uses
> intended to be covered by the CC licences. I'd say there's a real risk that
> using this word would import a whole lot of legal baggage into the
> interpretation in many countries - I don't think we could use it in our
> jurisdiction licence. That being said, it might be difficult to come up with
> a clear, simple term that doesn't have the same effect somewhere.

Rather than refer to "derivatives" or "adaptations", the GPL 3 draft uses the
following generic definitions:

``A "modified" work includes, without limitation, versions in which 
material has
been translated or added. A work "based on" another work means any modified
version, formation of which requires permission under applicable copyright
law.''

http://gplv3.fsf.org/gpl-draft-2006-07-27.html

- Rob.