OCLN — Open content legal news, a worldwide selection of news and events about open content with a focus on the legal side of things from Jordan Hatcher, legal consultant.
EU Public Licence. On the software side of things, Technollama reports on the new European Union Public Licnece, said to be GPL compatible.
Ford releases photos under CC-BY, and then promptly changes them to CC-BY-NC [via CC weblog]. Because CC licences are irrevocable, anyone downloading the original CC-BY can still use it under those term.
Some thoughts on p2p production and guilds via Open Business. As your users form part of your infrastructure (such as FON), you’ll have to start thinking differently about how you legally manage your relationships with them.
Florida schools are using CC-licensed content [via iterating towards openness]. The licence is CC-BY-SA and the site is wiki-based freereading.net.
What a copyright troll looks like. PK discusses copyright trolls. Could we see lots more copyright infringement lawsuits in the near future? If so, maybe more content available under an open content licence will be the result.
And just for fun…
A Peruvian dancer in Chile claims IP over Peruvian dance via Technollama. Not clear what kind of IP involved, but an interesting claim nonetheless.
OCLN is a regular feature here at opencontentlawyer.
Anything I missed that you think should be here? Let me know!
“Because CC licences are irrevocable”
Err… They are in the U.S. (though the practical application of revocation is questionable).
In the case of any work other than a work made for hire, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of copyright or of any right under a copyright, executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978, otherwise than by will, is subject to termination under the following conditions:
…
Termination of the grant may be effected notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, including an agreement to make a will or to make any future grant.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap2.html#203
Thanks for pointing out an issue that is worthy of its own post “Swashbuckler”. When the CC licences say that they are irrevocable, this doesn’t mean that they are exempt from other law that may negate this “irrevocability”. This is one of the many areas that mean that using a CC licence does not negate the need for good IP management practices.
The termination you mentioned however, it is worth pointing out, happens some time after the original grant:
“17 USC 203 (3) Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a period of five years beginning at the end of thirty-five years from the date of execution of the grant; or, if the grant covers the right of publication of the work, the period begins at the end of thirty-five years from the date of publication of the work under the grant or at the end of forty years from the date of execution of the grant, whichever term ends earlier.”
This means that those that downloaded the work under the CC-BY grant originally still have those rights for the work. Thanks again.