Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Gisle Hannemyr" <gisle AT ifi.uio.no>]

Prodromos Tsiavos wrote:
> Btw, is it legally possible e.g. in the French or Norwegian CC licences to
> have a clause saying that I m waiving or not asserting my moral right of
> integrity in those jurisdiction where it is permitted?

I don't know about France, but in Norway, moral rights can only be
waived if the agreement concerns a "use of the work [that] is limited
in nature and in extent".  They can not be  waived in the general case
(as would be the case with a general open ended licence such as CC).
At the end of this note, I've included a rough translation of the relevant
text from the Norwegian copyright act.

In the current translation (ver. 3.0) we've simply said that moral rights
are protected to the extent that they are protected by applicable law.
We've not included any text about waiving moral rights in the general
case.  In my opinion, including text saying that the author waives
his moral rights in the license would violate the Norwegian copyright
act, and hence render the license invalid in the Norway.

As for including text with a promise not to assert moral rights, IMHO
that is in nature equivalent to waiving moral rights, and therefore
would also put the validity of the license in jeopardy.

As I've said before - I think the ver. 3.0 Legal Code is fine as it
stands.
If the purpose of this exercise is to fix the "misunderstanding" in
certain circles that moral rights are being enforced by the license
- what needs fixing is the /Commons Deed/, which I think gives
readers in jurisdictions with moral rights the false impression that
moral rights are being enforced.

As promised, here is the text of the Norwegian  law (my translation):

In the Norwegian copyright act (Åndsverkloven), moral rights is regulated
by § 3, which have the following to say.  It consists of three parts.
Part one and part two simply lists the moral rights (part one
deals with the right of attribution, and part two deal with the right of
adaptations and how they should not be prejudicial to the athor’s
honour
or reputation, or the reputation of the work). It then continues:

   "The rights listed in part one and part two cannot be waived by the
    author through agreement, unless the use of the work is limited
    in nature and in extent.

   Even if the author has agreed to the use of the work, he has, if
   an adaptation of the work is performed or distributed that is
   derogatory as mentioned in part two, the right to assert that the
   performance or distribution do not take place under his name, or
   that it is made clear that the adaptations is not the work of the
   author.  This right can not be waived."


   The original, for those that reads Norwegian, is:
  "Sin rett efter første og annet ledd kan opphavsmannen ikke fraskrive
   seg, med mindre den bruk av verket som det gjelder, er avgrenset
   efter art og omfang."

   Selv om opphavsmannen har gitt gyldig samtykke til bruken, har han,
   hvis verket gjøres tilgjengelig for almenheten i slik krenkende skikkelse
   som nevnt i annet ledd, rett til å kreve at det enten ikke skjer under
   hans navn eller at det angis på fyldestgjørende måte at de foretatte
   endringer ikke skriver seg fra ham. Denne rett kan opphavsmannen
   ikke gi avkall på."

-- 
Gisle Hannemyr ( http://hannemyr.com/ )