Copyright and Her Limits, Act Two: Going to the Creative Commons
Copyright and Her Limits
Act 2: Going to the Creative
Commons
by Kathryn Kure
https://www.datamyna.com/2020/07/copyright-and-her-limits-act-two-going.html
This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
For this assignment, it can be assumed that FOAK, the
Fount of All Knowledge is the one who narrates all of the below. The questions,
and other personae will be added at a later stage, at which time the play will
be updated. However, it has been proving difficult to conjure up personae for
the various licenses, but as I have come to understand their attributes better,
they are starting to take shape. So, watch this space!
1. The three layers of the CC licenses
Some describe the Creative Commons licences in terms of three layers, but I am not at all fond of that description since it implies some kind of hierarchy in which one could be seen to be superior to the rest. It also makes it seem as if each layer is independent of the others when in fact, they are interdependent.
Instead, I like to think of them as the three-headed goddess. She is the same substance, but each of the heads addresses or talks to three very specific, and different audiences in different kinds of languages. There is an old symbol for the three-headed goddess, which relates to the waning, waxing, and full moon, and it looks like this:
AnonMoos - Own work - SVG version of image Image:Triple-Goddess-Waxing-Full-Waning-Symbol.png . Converted from the following PostScript code:%!6 setlinewidth6 240 translate300 156 144 0 360 arc stroke12 156 144 -90 90 arc-71.138439 156 166.276878 60 -60 arcnclosepath stroke588 156 144 90 -90 arc671.138439 156 166.276878 -120 120 arcnclosepath strokeshowpage%EOF, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1130398
However, what I would like to transfer it to is this:
Three CC Layers as Three Goddesses. BY Kathryn Kure CC BY 4.0 |
So, indeed, while the base layer or the foundation is the legal basis, which in terms of Creative Commons 4.0, is accepted internationally. However foundational or fundamental this base, legalese needs to be translated into ordinary language, and multiple ones at that, so that people to be able to understand how it works. There is no point in creating a solution unless people are prepared to use it. But they can’t use what they don’t understand, so the great big middle is about ensuring that the legal definitions are translated into easy to understand ordinary language. (Would that we could do the same thing with vaccine information, translating medical expertise into common understanding!) Finally, the raison d’être of Creative Commons is about responding to the tremendous potential of the Internet, and as we all know very first thing we do when we are looking for something is to type our need into a Search Engine. Hence, the final translation is of the licences has to be into something that can be readily understood as meta-data by the machines. As a result of all the work done in the software works that are published online with CC licenses embedded can be easily searched, retrieved, copied, disseminated – all in terms of the terms and conditions of their CC licences which are readily understood as an attribute of the work itself. This final layer is called a “machine-readable” version of the licence.
Hence, depending on the questions you ask, the goddess will talk to you either in legalese, or in ordinary language or in meta-data, but the answers are equivalent, though different and not everyone will understand all of them, or indeed is meant to in the case of the machines.
ICON |
LICENSE
ELEMENT |
SHORTENED
FORM |
ATTRIBUTION |
BY |
|
NON-COMMERCIAL |
NC |
|
SHARE
ALIKE |
SA |
|
NO
DERIVATIVES |
ND |
a) Attribution. Each and every single CC licence requires that the creator be given attribution. Hence, the abbreviation for every single CC licence will be CC BY. Although in earlier versions of the licence this characteristic was implied rather than explicit, based on the fact that over 98% of creator’s wish attribution it is now the default setting for every licence. However, the conditions where a creator can ask that they are not attributed (for instance where they are not willing to be associated with a derivative of the work, and this too must be respected). As with everything, there are the rules, and then the exceptions to the rules but the main role is that you have to do acknowledge the creator.
This is pretty much what it says on the tin – that the work
cannot be repurposed or reused for commercial purposes. Although a commercial
entity may use the work it can only use it in a non-commercial manner. So it is
the nature of the use of the work, and not the nature of the entity using the
work, that counts in this case a non-profit organisation which is wishing to
sell the work is not entitled to do this under the NC licence element.
3.The six Creative Commons licenses, from least to most restrictive, are:
ICON |
LABEL
|
DESCRIPTION |
|
CC
BY |
This
is the least restrictive CC licence, and all that is required by the user is
that they attribute the creator of the work. The user can remix, adapt, and
share the work freely. Even for commercial purposes. |
|
CC
BY SA |
In
this, the user must not only attribute the work, but it puts a condition on
the re-use of the work such that anyone who adapts, or re-shares the work (whether
for commercial or non-commercial purposes) must do so under at least the
condition of this licence if not one that is more free (less restrictive).
Wikipedia for instance requires that all works be CC BY SA which means that
work done for the site has to be freely shared, it cannot be restricted by an
ND license for instance. This is also known as copyleft. |
|
CC
BY NC |
This
licence means that any user must not only attribute the creator, but that the
use of the work can only be for non-commercial purposes. |
|
CC
BY NC SA |
This
licence means that a) the creator has to be given attribution, b) the purpose
to which the workers used can only be a non-profit purpose, and c) any
adaptations to the work has to be able to be shared under the same, or a
compatible licence. |
|
CC
BY ND |
This
licence prohibits any user from creating a derivative work and sharing it.
That is, only the adapted version of the work can be shared – and as usual,
the creator of the work must be given attribution. Interestingly, the work
can be used for commercial purposes, but only in an unadapted form. |
|
CC
BY NC ND |
This
is by far the most restrictive of all licences, in that not only can no
derivatives be made, but also the work can only be re-shared or used rather
for non-commercial purposes. |
4. How the CC licenses affect exceptions and limitations
to copyright
5. How the CC licenses affect works in the public domain
The CC licences work within copyright law. The public domain is usually thought to refer only to those works which either not copyrightable, or where term limits mean that they are no longer under copyright, or where the creators never enforced copyright in previous times when there were specific requirements that had to be fulfilled in order for copyright to be granted. However, even though it is not a licence, there are public domain tools which Creative Commons provides. The first merely acts as a label, for instance, in relation to very old works by museums, but the second is more interesting and is a mechanism whereby creators can indicate that they have chosen to effectively provide their works to the public domain. This is called the public domain dedication tool. Although it is not recognised in all jurisdictions, by all countries, at the very least the CC Zero public domain dedication tool grants assurance to any user using Internet country in the world that the creator would not assert copyright against the re-user, even if the country in which they are using the work does not recognise this tool.
PUBLIC
DOMAIN ICON |
|
PUBLIC
DOMAIN MARK |
|
PUBLIC
DOMAIN DEDICATION TOOL OR CC0 |
Bibliography
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