Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Peter Brink <peter.brink AT brinkdata.se>]

drew Roberts skrev:

> > > [Peter]
> > > To "distribute" is to make a work available to the general public.
> > > Copying is not distribution.
>
> Is this a feature or a bug? How does this line up with how the GPL handles it 
> for programs?

I was a bit imprecise. When you distribute a copyrightable work it's 
implied that the work is made available to the general public. Obviously 
you also make copies of a work when you distribute. But if you make 100 
copies of a work and store those in your closet then those 100 copies 
has not been distributed to anyone, they are just copies. You are not 
allowed to make that many copies without permission, but the license (CC 
licenses or, for example, the GPL) grants you that right and it also 
grants you the right to distribute the copies. The difference between 
distribution and copying is therefore mainly whether the copies are made 
available to the general public.

What is the general public? As far as copyright law goes, probably not 
more than five people, but this varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

It's worth remembering that neither "distribute" or "copy" are concepts 
originating from the license, they are part of the lingua of copyright law.

/Peter Brink