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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] New Generic and ports

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] New Generic and ports
  • Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:16:29 +0000

Henri wrote:

point of having ports of the 3.0 series instead of using the "New Generic" with English as the governing language everywhere?

The "ports" of the CC licence address specific local issues that the US licence either ignores, or else are required for it to be legally binding.

The biggie, is that the US/generic licence is extremely fuzzy as to whether or not it is a contract. The presence or absence of such a clause can be enough to invalidate the licence in _some_ jurisdictions. The results of such invalidation be either "all rights reserved", or "public domain", or a limbo status between the two.

Obviously it would be nice to have a generic licence, that one could be assured would be valid worldwide. Due to the differences in how the local copyright laws are written, and the legal traditions of the different countries, such a licence is very unlikely to be written. [Look at the difference between the Roman Dutch Law, Code Napoleon, and British Common Law, and US Case Law legal traditions --- especially in copyrightable material and protections. The Netherlands: Sweat equity counts. France: Moral rights count, US: Neither sweat equity nor moral rights have any meaning.]

xan

jonathon




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