Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Evan Prodromou <evan AT prodromou.name>]

On Tue, 2007-16-01 at 00:16 -0800, CM wrote:
> Thanks to all for responding to my original inquiry.
> 
> I suppose in the last couple days I've learned more about CC, and my
> question has changed a bit.  What I should have asked is, "Is it
> possible for somebody to grant me a by-nd license, while granting
> everybody else a by-nc-nd license, for the same image?"

The answer is, "Yes, that's possible." However, as with the ShareAlike
scenario you used at the beginning, it still doesn't make much sense. CC
licenses were designed to grant permissions to the general public for
widespread sharing and re-use, not as contracts between individuals.

When someone lets you use a work under any Creative Commons license,
that lets you distribute the work (in print, or on the Web, or over the
radio, or whatever). However, according to the license:

        You may distribute [...] the Work only under the terms of this
        License, and You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource
        Identifier for, this License with every copy [...] of the Work
        You distribute [...]. You may not offer or impose any terms on
        the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the
        recipients' exercise of the rights granted hereunder.

If you decide to distribute the work, you'll have to note that it's
available under the by-nd license.

Now, probably what you want to do is this: require your users release
works under the by-nc-nd license, with the additional permission that
you (and only you) can distribute the work on your Web site for whatever
purposes. If you want to use the works for other things (printed books,
or whatever), either be explicit in the additional permissions, or just
say "for any purpose in any medium" or something like that.

-Evan



________________________________________________________________________
Evan Prodromou <evan AT prodromou.name>
http://evan.prodromou.name/

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