Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Sunday, April 15, 2007

Publisher Q&A about CC licenses

The Creative Commons Publishers Association is "a small group that meets semi-regularly to discuss questions about CC licensing and to establish best practices for publishers and others using Creative Commons’ legal tools."

The CCPA home page (a wiki) has the minutes from the last meeting (February 21, 2007), which included some very useful questions about CC licenses and answers by Eric Steuer, Creative Director at Creative Commons.  Excerpt:

  • Can a license on a particular item of content be retracted or changed down the road if you change your mind?
    • Technically, yes, you can stop publishing your work under a CC license -- but you can't require people who have already obtained your work under the previous CC license to stop using it or redistributing it....
  • Can you license your content to a publisher under an exclusive agreement and still release it under a CC license?
    • No, by its definition, an exclusive agreement allows only that publisher to distribute or otherwise use your work....
  • If, as a publisher, I distribute content that others have provided to me under a CC-Noncommercial license, does that mean I can't sell ads to help support my business? ...
    • Yes, you can....
  • Can you license different versions of a content item under two different licenses? For instance, two different resolutions of a graphic image?
    • Yes, if the two versions are clearly distinguishable. A thumbnail could be CC-licensed, while the full image could be All Rights Reserved....
  • Has CC licensing been contested and/or upheld in a court of law?
    • Yes, twice....