Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

[Danyl Strype <strypey AT disintermedia.net.nz>]

Kia ora koutou

This discussion got going a while back, on the heels of another discussion. I think it's worth further consideration.

On 28 January 2013 09:53, Richard White <richard.white AT otago.ac.nz> wrote:

Leigh said:

It seems to me that if we used todays technology to return to the practice of having to register copyright, like we do patents and remarks, then we'd be somewhere closer to a more manageable balance. Anything that is not registered is public domain.

I do like the idea of getting rid of automatic ARR. However, I assume the reason for automatic ARR copyright is to protect people who don't know how copyright works, which is most people, as we continually discover while promoting CC, ;) This is a problem that is not addressed by either a registration process, or asserting copyright (ARR or CC) when the work is published.

Richard:

Yes!  I’ve often had this thought myself, given that anyone who wants to protect their work should actively do so anyway (i.e. by actually thinking about their rights and what others can do with what they create).  I would suggest a slight variation to what Leigh says: you’d have to specifically assert all-rights-reserved and where this didn’t happen would not be public domain (where not even attribution is required) to a sort of moral-rights-reserved, where you’d still have to attribute the creator, not treat the work in a defamatory way, etc., as is currently expressed in the Act.  So, if I put a picture up on my blog with no rights assertion of any kind then those things still apply to the work.  So, in a way, this other type of right would be CC BY.

Could it actually be CC-BY?After all, this is now the default for Crown Copyright under NZ GOAL, so it's not without precedent.

It could even be CC-BY-NC (much as I'm loath to suggest it ;), which would give the copyright holder the option to relicense to CC-BY if they have no interest in reserving commercial use rights.

You wouldn’t think this would affect anyone who really makes money off their content because they already assert their rights.  It would just free up all that other stuff.

Exactly. It still satisfies the purpose of automatic ARR (assuming I'm correct about what that purpose is ;) but without creating the troublesome and unhelpful restrictions.

 you wouldn’t have to have a registration process if the stipulation was simply that you assert your rights in some way, e.g. putting the © symbol or a CC licence on the work

I support this idea over a registration system for two reasons. One is that there asserting a license on the work creates no admin costs, whereas there would be ongoing costs in running a registration system, with no significant value added. The other is that any system that requires per-work registration is going to privilege larger, more profitable copyright holders over individuals, non-profits etc.

I’ve never even really suggested this out loud because it seems the complete opposite of where things are going, as well as my own cynicism.  I’ve not checked but I presume such fundamental change would require international agreement/modification of the Berne convention terms, etc.

Are any of our legal team able to comment on this? I could be wrong, but my understanding is that not all countries with a copyright system have automatic ARR. Also, I am still keen to get a legal opinion on whether the NC clause in this license propagates to any derivative works, giving the original creator commercial rights over any derivatives.

Ma te wā

--
Danyl Strype
Community Developer
Disintermedia.net.nz/strype

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