Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>]

Dana Powers wrote:
> I honestly can't think of how you could digitally combine a musical
> work with a video without synching.  Even the most basic arrangement,
> having both start simultaneously, seems to fit the definition.

You cannot combine an image into a text article in PDF format without
making a precise specification of its location on the page. However, the
PDF document, like the HTML page it could've been based on, has been
described as "a collection".

The point is that the location of the image on the page is not itself a
creative part of the work. The fact that an automatic typesetter
actually had to place it *somewhere* doesn't constitute synching.

(IMHO, anyway, and based on previous posts by people who evidently
understand the law better than I do :-) ).

I would imagine that the same situation applies to video. Yes, there is
*some* synch position of the sound with the video as a technical result
of changing the format of the data. However this is not a creative
decision, because there is no *meaningful* synchronization of sound
events to video events.

Another thought experiment: I'm sure you've at least once in your life
set up your sound and television to show completely unrelated sources
(play a music album over the speakers, and have silent video on the
screen). What if you just recorded the result? Would that be
"synchronization", even though there was absolutely no creative effort
involved in choosing the timing relationship between the two? IMHO, it
would not be -- the mere mechanical synchronization that results from
recording a random, non-significant relation in time should not be
considered "synchronization".

Of course, it would be difficult to prove this if there is any
meaningful video signal at all -- I would think that a blank screen, or
possibly a static image with a title card would be about the only thing
you could defend.

Of course, IANAL, etc.

But that's what it seems like would be necessary to be consistent.

Cheers,
Terry


-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock AT AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com