Creative Commons License Flaws Claimed

bloosqr writes "Dan Heller, in a series of three articles, claims to have found a number of problems with the Creative Commons license, particularly within the realm of photography. In the first article he states there is a problem with people relicensing copyrighted work under the CC license and having subsequent users of that copyrighted work sued by the original owner. In the second article he fleshes out these ideas and states that there is an increased risk of being sued if you use a CC license. Finally, in the third article, he states that people can 'game the CC license' for profit, by suing people who use your CC'd work which you have subsequently revoked from the CC license. This series of blogs has generated a fair amount of discussion on several photography forums, and I would like for the Slashdot community to clarify matters."

Comments

How often does that happen?

[autophile]

...there is a problem with people relicensing copyrighted work under the CC license and having subsequent users of that copyrighted work sued by the original owner

First, how often does that really happen?

Second, why is this a problem with CC? It would be a problem with anyone placing a copyrighted work under any license, or even claiming copyright on a work copyrighted by someone else. It's more a problem with copyright and the legal system.

--Rob

ummmm

[demonbug]

"...and I would like for the Slashdot community to clarify matters."

I LOL'd.

Re:Relicensing is the issue

[tjstork]

I am not so sure that this is so much an isuee of Creative Commons, as it is the gray void that is relicensing. You should only be applying the CC to your own work and if you are applying the CC to something else, then you should responsible for the fallout, especially if the license is incompatible with the original.

I think the gist of the article is thus:

Owner A has photo
B releases A under CC to X,Y,Z
A sues X,Y,Z, but really B is to blame.

The game is that, I could take one of my friend's photos, and put it up on the likes of Wikipedia. Then, my friend turns around and sues Wikipedia for infringement. In other words, the claim is that the license somehow makes it possible to "game the system", but, as you already pointed out, I don't see how that isn't possible with any license.

Why should I worry about Dan Heller's opinions?

[jdgeorge]

As far as I can tell, DHINAL (Dan Heller is not a lawyer). Why would I worry about his opinions, rather than the well informed opinion of Lawrence Lessig, the law professor who actually founded the Creative Commons, and uses the licenses extensively?

WANLBWPLOTV

[WED Fan]

I would like for the Slashdot community to clarify matters.

??!!!??!!

Do you actually think that the /. community contains anything but dangerous and specious interpretations of legal matters?

What next?

You're going to write to a Garden community to ask for medical advice?

Re:I Must Be Confused ... No Backsies!

[Kjella]

The author is an idiot. Assuming the original release was legit, whereever you get the CC'd image has permission to redistribute it under CC, and that's the end of it. This would only apply if someone later got it directly from the photographer WITHOUT any license attached and no sane person would use it commercially without one. If you're highly misleading about it, estoppel would apply anyway.