Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] CC 3 and Circumvention [Was Re: Version 3.0 - Public Discussion]

cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Brink <peter.brink AT brinkdata.se>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] CC 3 and Circumvention [Was Re: Version 3.0 - Public Discussion]
  • Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:45:24 +0200

rob AT robmyers.org skrev:
Quoting Greg London <email AT greglondon.com>:

A CC license would authorize you to circumvent any DRM that
restricts the rights to that particular CC work.

But can it? The CC work's author is not the same person as the DRM system's
author. Can the CC work's author give permission to circumvent a DRM system
that they themselves are not the author of?

As far as the EC goes and based on p. 4 of art. 6 of the EC Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (
http://www.wipo.int/clea/docs_new/en/eu/eu049en.html#JD_b6), one would think that DRM measures that have been put in place in "absence of voluntary measures taken by rightholders" are not allowed to remove fair use, fair dealing rights or any exceptions from the author's rights.

But in the last subparagraph of p. 4 one can read: "The provisions of the first and second subparagraphs shall not apply to works or other subject-matter made available to the public on agreed contractual terms in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them."

This seems to mean that a licensee (such as site which offers downloadable works), that has not been explicitly forbidden from applying DRM measures by the rightsholder, may impose DRM measures on his own accord, and if the public agrees (on contractual terms) to relinquish some or all of their fair use, fair dealing rights or any exceptions from the author's rights, then such DRM measures may not be circumvented.

If, however, the original rightsholder offers the work under the contractual term (such as those of a CC-license) that any DRM measures, that a licensee imposes, may be freely circumvented, then the end user will be free to circumvent any DRM protection.

Such a provision already exist, in the new Generic 3.0 license it is expressed as "[y]ou may not impose any technological measures on the Work that restrict the ability of a recipient of the Work from You to exercise their rights granted under the License."

/Peter Brink







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page