Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Andres Guadamuz <a.guadamuz AT ed.ac.uk>]

These are my opinions based on my personal understanding. IAAL.


Michael Welp wrote:

> If a piece of text is licensed under a NC-license, is one allowed to put
> that text on a web page with ads?
> 
> For example, someone released an article about tomatoes under a
> NC-license. I like that article and put it on my website. There are ads
> displayed on my website, for example, Google AdSense:
> 

In my opinion, yes, it would infringe the licence.

> 1. If I placed the ads on the website and receive the revenues, would
> that violate a NC-license?

I also think this would violate the licence's terms.

> 2. I use a free web hosting service. The business model of the web
> hosting company is to offer free hosting and to place ads on the free
> websites to make money.

This is a borderline case, as you are not the one who is obtaining
commercial gain.

> 
> 3. The ads are independent from the licensed text, e.g. the text is
> about tomatoes and the ads are about computer software. Violation?
> 
I do not understand this, subject matter has nothing to do with
commercial use or not.


> 4. The ads refer to the licensed text. For example, Google AdSense works
> this way: the content of a web page is analyzed and then matching ads
> are automatically displayed. For example, ads about tomato soup, how to
> grow tomatoes, etc.

Again, subject matter of the ads is completely irrelevant to the
commercial use.

> PS: Sorry if my English reads not that smooth -- English is not my
> mother tongue.

Same here :)

Regards,

Andres

-- 
Andres Guadamuz
AHRC Research Centre for Studies in
Intellectual Property and Technology Law
Old College, South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL

Tel: 44 (0)131 6509699
Fax: 44 (0)131 6506317
a.guadamuz AT ed.ac.uk
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrb/

IP/IT/Medical Law LLM by Distance Learning
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