Cc-uk mailing list

[Paul Dixon <paul AT elphin.com>]

> It may be better to remove/hide this individual's pictures and take
> take steps to avoid this happening again. 
We do have a user in dispute over re-use of one their images in 
Wikipedia; one of the avenues he appears to be exploring is revokation 
of the licence along the lines I've described. However, I'd like to 
explore the issue in a more hypothetical manner as I believe it is of 
relevance to anyone building similar collective works - that unless 
special steps are made a licensor can revoke licence by claiming it's 
impossible to prove they accepted it in the first place.

> Measures might include:
>
> * Better education of users about the implications of the CC
> licence. There are materials on the CC website to help with this.
>   
This doesn't address the revocation problem, aside from maybe dissuading 
a licensor who turns out bad in future!. I believe most of our users 
*are* educated - firstly, with every image they submit they are faced 
with this screen

http://files.dixo.net/cc_confirmation_page.gif (28Kb)

I've also written this http://www.geograph.co.uk/help/freedom page all 
about *why* we've adopted this licence.

There's lively debate in our site forums too.

> * Better recording of submission metadata (evidence of who uploaded
> what)
>   
This is the essential problem - we know which "user account" uploaded 
each photo, but we have no way of verifying the identity of the person 
operating that account at the time of upload.


> * Better statements of who you are, what you intend to do with the
> data in the long term and what your business model might be (you're
> in a .co.uk domain, so you're a business?)
>   
We could probably do a better job here. We're planning on forming some 
kind of non-profit legal entity in the next few months, but this is a 
side issue to the problem I'm describing here.


> * Clearer statements about the removal of content, the conditions
> under which it will and won't happen and procedures for this
> happening. Explain why, both in terms of what you're trying to do
> and what you're allowed to do under the licence they have given you.
>   
We have an informal policy at the moment which we really should write 
up. If a user requests removal of their images for any reason, we'll put 
to them good reasons for leaving the images and/or other ways of 
resolving any dispute they may have. If they insist, we'll remove them.