Development of Creative Commons licenses

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

drew Roberts skrev:
> On Monday 15 January 2007 08:03 am, Peter Brink wrote:
> > drew Roberts skrev:
> > > Does anyone know which it is in fact?
> > A derivative work must be the result of a _creative act_ originating
> > from a human being. If a machine down- or upsamples a work there is no
> > creative act involved, it's a just a mechanical transformation. A
> > "thumbnail" is therefore a copy and not a derivative work.
>
> Fine. A clear answer. Thanks. Now may I ask my original question that 
> concerned me in this area again?
>
> I was trying to license 640X480 images BY-SA and sell higher resolution 
> versions with the promise that as I reached $X in sales, the higher 
> resolution one would change to BY-SA as well. And so on.
>
> The point was made that this would not really work for me. Someone could get 
> the low resolution version. Buy one copy of the high resolution version. 
> "Apply" the BY-SA from the low resolution copy of the work to the high 
> resolution version they had purchased under a different license and go to 
> town.
>
> That made some sense to me and I stopped pushing my plans.
>
> Some time later, I took part in discussion that concluded the opposite. I 
> think Magnatune was brought up as an example in that thread.
>
> Can you explain your take on how this all works?

In my book the low and high resolution images are the same work. The
license is obviously worded so that all versions of a work (but not
derivative works created by the licensor) are covered by the license.
All versions or editions of a work are thus covered by the grant in
section 3 (license grant). So - yes - if you offered a low resolution
image under BY-SA, the high resolution image (being the same work) would
also be available under the same terms. That outcome might not be
intended by some (many?) licensor's but it follows from the language of
the license. Btw I seem to recall that this issue (or a very similar
one) has been discussed (to some length) on this list - can't remember
how long ago.

/Peter Brink