Cc-uk mailing list

[Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>]

I am not a lawyer, I am not Creative Commons. 

On Wednesday, January 12, 2005, at 03:22PM, 
<Damian.Rafferty AT Culture.gsi.gov.uk> wrote:

>I am not clear about the legal status of Creative Commons in England. If for
>example a museum were to put some of its content under a CC license, what
>would be the legal status of the content at the moment?

The CC licenses are copyright licenses, so you keep copyright on your content 
but allow certain well-defined uses by anyone who can access it. The content 
is protected by the license, and if someone uses the work inappropriately you 
still have licensing law and copyright law on your side.

The localised licenses for England/Wales and for Scotland aren't quite 
finished yet. They should be done soon. Content shouldn't be released under 
the draft versions. 

Depending on the timescale of any project the best thing is either to wait 
for the UK licenses or to use the main (American) CC licenses. You can switch 
later, or if using third-party work you can use the re-licensing clause of 
the licenses to re-license the work under a CC-UK license.

>Is there a future point at which the licenses would be more valid and if so
>when is this expected to happen?

The UK licenses will be very valid when they're finished. :-) Until then the 
main CC licenses should be OK.

- Rob.