Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Michael Nottebrock <lofi AT freebsd.org>]

On Monday, 21. May 2007, Will Martin wrote:
> Hmm.  An interesting response.  But I'm still puzzled, I'm afraid;
> Joachim's response boils down to "you can apply the license to
> whichever parts you choose."  But I'm not asking about what I can
> choose to do; I'm asking about what I'm obligated to do.
>
>  From where I sit, it seems to me that a web page constitutes a single
> composite work.  Although one web page can incorporate many logically
> distinct bits and pieces (such as HTML code, CSS code, text, and
> images), it doesn't make sense to license each bit of those
> separately, because every single bit is required in order for the
> whole to make sense.

My personal take on this is that since the definition g., which explains what 
the "Work" is, only defines the "work offered under the terms of this 
License", you don't need to apply that same definition to the "Adaptation" 
(the "work based upong the Work"), unless you /want/ to indeed put it under 
the same license.

So, yes, IMHO, you can indeed just consider the altered image as 
the "Adaptation" in question for your testcase and thus everything will be 
good and well as long as you remember to attribute the Original Author, 
demarcate your changes ("Background image based on "My Monkey" by John Doe, 
[link=BY-NC-SA]some rights reserved[/link]"), and make sure you don't prevent 
users from exercising their rights granted by the license (i.e. if the site 
has any silly mechanisms in place to prevent people from downloading images, 
make sure the image in question is excepted).

Or for short: The copyleft of SA isn't viral.

I myself license images under the BY-SA and BY-SA-NC terms based on this 
interpretation of the license.

Of course, you won't get a definitive answer here (or anywhere else, except 
maybe at some point in court) anyway, since Creative Commons as an 
organization has no part in the dealings between the licensor (the copyright 
holder of the image) and the licensee (you). In the end, you will make up 
your mind on how you will interpret the license - seeking qualified legal 
advice (this mail isn't) might help you with making that decision.


Cheers,
-- 
   ,_,   | Michael Nottebrock               | lofi AT freebsd.org
 (/^ ^\) | FreeBSD - The Power to Serve     | http://www.freebsd.org
   \u/   | K Desktop Environment on FreeBSD | http://freebsd.kde.org

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