Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] Retracting masterial distributed under aCC 2.0 BY-NC-SA Licence.

cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: drew Roberts <zotz AT 100jamz.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] Retracting masterial distributed under aCC 2.0 BY-NC-SA Licence.
  • Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 20:18:23 -0500

On Friday 08 December 2006 06:36 pm, Mia Garlick wrote:
> one minor clarification: while the CC licenses are not revocable with
> respect to those people who have already accepted the work under the
> license, the license expressly reserves to the licensor to withdraw
> offering the work under the license at any time. thus, it is
> possible to remove content. but i agree with james that it would be
> useful to know the legal basis on which you are requested not to
> mention a specific website.

Mia, just to clear up a question this raises in my mind. If the licensor
withdraws the offering, others could still continue to get it from those who
already have it or would they no longer have the right to distribute?

I can see them not giving to any new people with the license. Fine. And if no
one has copies, the content is removed from circulation. But can they remove
it by telling everyone worldwide to no longer distribute the work or any
derivatives?

If so, this seems like a huge problem...
>
> On Dec 8, 2006, at 3:31 PM, James Grimmelmann wrote:
> > jonathon wrote:
> >> All:
> >>
> >> I received a very polite, informal, "cease and desist" letter.
> >>
> >> Basically, the sender wants all of my material that mentions a
> >> specific
> >> website to be removed from public distribution. I've removed the
> >> relevant material from my website.
> >>
> >> One of the points they want, is assurance that the material will
> >> not be redistributed by third parties.
> >>
> >> My understanding is that they are perfectly willing to go to court
> >> over
> >> this. The judge will issue a ruling in their favour. That judgement
> >> will, in theory, trump the CC licence. I don't see any point going to
> >> court, knowing that the best case scenario for me, is that I lose. A
> >> good faith effort, merely reduces the amount of damages can be
> >> awarded
> >> against me.
> >>
> >> All of the affected material was distributed under a CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0
> >> license.
> >>
> >> I've gone thru that licence, and can't find a way to prevent further
> >> distribution of the offending material. Have I missed something?
> >
> > The following is not legal advice . . .
> >
> > In general no, a CC license is not revocable. You cannot revoke your
> > grant of permission to your licensees to distribute the material you
> > licensed to them. The sender of the C&D can't reasonably ask you to
> > stop the distribution because you probably have no power to stop it.
> > This is not to say, however, that the sender might not have the
> > ability/right to stop that distribution him- or her-self.
> >
> > It would be useful to know on what basis the letter demands that this
> > material be removed. Is it a matter of copyright infringement, or
> > something else?
> >
> > James


all the best,

drew
--
(da idea man)
National Novel Writing Month
Sayings (Winner 2006)
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/262954




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page