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[Mia Garlick <mia AT creativecommons.org>]

Pdf attached; text below.

Attachment: CurrycasePR.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES UPHELD IN DUTCH COURT

San Francisco, USA, & Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 15, 2006

The first known court decision involving a Creative Commons license  
was handed down on March 9, 2006 by the District Court of Amsterdam.   
The case confirmed that the conditions of a Creative Commons license  
automatically apply to the content licensed under it.

The proceedings arose when former MTV VJ and podcasting guru Adam  
Curry (http://curry.podshow.com/?p=49) published photos of his family  
on the well-known online photo-sharing site Flickr (http:// 
www.flickr.com) under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- 
Sharealike license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 
2.5/). The Dutch tabloid Weekend reproduced four of the photos in a  
story about Curry’s children.

Curry sued Weekend for copyright and privacy infringement. As to the  
copyright claim, Weekend argued that it was misled by the notice  
‘this photo is public’ (which is a standard feature of all Flickr  
images that are viewable by the public), and that the link to the CC  
license was not obvious. Weekend had assumed that no authorization  
from Curry was needed.  Audax, the publisher of Weekend, argued that  
it was informed of the existence of the CC license only much later by  
its legal counsel.

The Court rejected Weekend’s defense, and held as follows:

“All four photos that were taken from www.flickr.com were made by  
Curry and posted by him on that website. In principle, Curry owns the  
copyright in the four photos, and the photos, by posting them on that  
website, are subject to the [Creative Commons] License.  Therefore  
Audax should observe the conditions that control the use by third  
parties of the photos as stated in the License.  The Court  
understands that Audax was misled by the notice ‘This photo is  
public’ (and therefore did not take note of the conditions of the  
License).  However, it may be expected from a professional party like  
Audax that it conduct a thorough and precise examination before  
publishing in Weekend photos originating from the Internet. Had it  
conducted such an investigation, Audax would have clicked on the  
symbol accompanying the notice ‘some rights reserved’ and encountered  
the (short version of) the License. In case of doubt as to the  
applicability and the contents of the License, it should have  
requested authorization for publication from the copyright holder of  
the photos (Curry). Audax has failed to perform such a detailed  
investigation, and has assumed too easily that publication of the  
photos was allowed. Audax has not observed the conditions stated in  
the License […]. The claim […] will therefore be allowed; defendants  
will be enjoined from publishing all photos that [Curry] has  
published on www.flickr.com, unless this occurs in accordance with  
the conditions of the License.”

The full text of the decision (in Dutch) is available at http:// 
zoeken.rechtspraak.nl/zoeken/dtluitspraak.asp? 
searchtype=ljn&ljn=AV4204&u_ljn=AV4204

“We are very happy with this decision as it demonstrates that the  
millions of creators who use creative commons licenses are  
effectively protected against abuses of their willingness to  
contribute to the commons,” said Paul Keller, Public Project Lead for  
Creative Commons in the Netherlands.

“This decision confirms that the Creative Commons licensing system is  
an effective way for content creators to manage their copyrights  
online,” said Lawrence Lessig, Creative Commons CEO & Chairman, “The  
decision should also serve as a timely reminder to those seeking to  
use content online, to respect the terms that apply to that content.”

About Creative Commons Netherlands

Creative Commons Netherlands is collaboration between Creative  
Commons Corporation, Waag Society, Netherland Knowledgeland  
Foundation and the Institute for Information Law of the University of  
Amsterdam. Creative Commons is supported by the Dutch Ministry for  
Education, Culture and Sciences. For general Information (in Dutch)  
visit http://nl.creativecommons.org

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001,  
that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works— 
whether owned or in the public domain. Creative Commons licences  
provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors,  
artists, and educators that build upon the "all rights reserved"  
concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights  
reserved" approach. It is sustained by the generous support of  
various foundations including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur  
Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, and the  
Rockefeller Foundation as well as members of the public. For general  
information, visit http://creativecommons.org

Contact

Paul Keller
Project Lead
CC Netherlands, Amsterdam
paul AT waag.org

Mia Garlick
General Counsel
Creative Commons, San Francisco
mia AT creativecommons.org

Press Kit

http://creativecommons.org/presskit