CC0 Development Process

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Feedback and summaries of the CC0 community feedback process will be posted here. This is not a complete list of all feedback, just a summary. We have provided links to specific comments whenever possible. If we missed your comment or concern you are invited to add to this discussion. Comments can be made on this page, the discussion page or on related lists noted below.


Status

CC0 is in Beta Draft 2, and we are actively soliciting public comment on the latest draft. More general information and resources on CC0 can be found here. This will also be a topic of discussion at the CCi Legal Day 2008 At that time, we plan to engage collaboratively with our CCi project leads and others from the broader CC community in an effort to address to the extent possible the feedback collected as of that date. To make that collaboration as meaningful as possible, we ask that further feedback be submitted in advance of the iSummit.

Feedback on the deed and legal code should be directed to the cc-licenses mailing list. To join go to cc-license list.

General comments may be posted on the cc-community list here.

Deed and Legal Code Feedback

We received a number of comments in response to the original draft of [then]-CCZero, most of which we have endeavored to capture below in the interest of completeness but which are now largely moot due to revisions made in Beta Draft 2. We have noted those instances below whenever possible.

Scope of Rights being Waived

A few comments sought clarification on the scope of the waiver: does it just waive copyright-specific rights, or is it broader and includes rights such as patents[1], trademarks, unfair competition, privacy rights, publicity rights, commercial rights, and/or database rights.

These issues were clarified in Beta 2, though trademarks were not addressed and patent rights were only addressed in the context of facts and ideas. We plan to add language to make clear that patent and trademark rights, if any, held by the affirmer are not affected by the waiver.

It was also suggested that we make clear that the waiver does not affect third party rights related to the content, such as publicity and privacy rights. While this is always the case (none of our legal tools purport to affect third party rights), we agree it bears mentioning in the text of the waiver itself. We plan to submit for discussion proposed language to make this clear.

Signature Requirements

There is some concern in the community that a renouncement of rights cannot be made without a signature. We continue to look at this issue, but it does appear to be solvable in some jurisdictions by inclusion of the alternative license language. This issue is being considered further.

  • Does the waiver require a signature in order to be effective or enforceable? [2] notes on relevance of signature
  • How might a signature be obtained: via emails; a la CC's current PDD process; other?

Restrictions and Limitations on Waiving Moral Rights

Several CCi project leads and community members have commented on the restrictions and limitations on waiving moral rights, particularly in European jursidictions, such as

  • German Moral rights are unalienable [3]
  • Under Australian law, you can consent to specific instances of infringement of your moral rights, but you cannot waive them. s195AW(1) of the Copyright Act 1968 states that it is not an infringement of moral rights if the infringement is within the scope of written consent given by the author. Comment from Elliott Bledsoe
  • Norway - moral rights issue comment from Gisle(law cite needed)
  • UK may require a signature for waiving moral right 87 (2)" Any of those rights may be waived by instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right." Suggesting that 87(4) may provide some wiggle room but unsure how well it would work with regards to moral rights. [4]
  • Comment suggesting that moral rights and the conversation from CC v3.01 is relevant [5]
  • A suggestion that the only possible solution under monistic systems with strong moral rights would probably be an assertion to never claim and enforce any unwaivable right in the work, although further suggesting that courts won't be readily willing to uphold such an auxilliary construction designed to circumvene non-dispositive law. cc-license list John Hendrik Weitzmann

Jurisdiction-Specific Comments (not otherwise captured)

Some CCi jurisdictions foresee problems with renouncing unrenuncible rights and have noted where the legal code may conflict with or contradict applicable law.

  • Chile = copyright act - art. 86 ...all the patrimonial rights as unrenunciable by authors [6] Waivers may solve this issue... can't renounce but can waive. There are possibly conflicting statutes in some Latin American countries on this issue [7]
  • Spain = similar issues in Spain as Chile: PD = waived rights and some rights can not be waived. David on the cc-licenses list

Beta 2 works to solve this problem by providing a renouncement, a waiver, and a license if the renouncement and the waiver fail in a particular jurisdiction.

Tool / Usability Feedback

One of the primary goals of CC0 is to provide a tool that is easy to use and understand. CC has received several suggestions for improving the tool, such as:

  • A warning is needed, or some way to let people know what rights they need to make this dedication.

CC Note: The issue of informing people as to the rights they need to apply a CC License or Waiver has come up in several contexts. This issue is not unique to CC0 and is being considered.

  • The meta data needs to express more information (early comment):

CC Note: The current metadata states "all copyright, moral rights, database rights, and any other rights that might be asserted over X", and will likely be updated as we finalize the legal code.

CC Note: this may be more applicable to the public domain assertion tool but could be useful in the CC0 context also .

Human Readable Deed

Several commentators have suggested that the deed include a more specific listing of rights waived and what is meant by the "neighboring rights" referenced in the legal code. Currently, the deed uses the language "The person who has associated a work with this document affirms that he or she holds the copyright interests in the work, and hereby waives all of those interests and any related or neighboring legal rights in the work." We may update this language once the legal code is finalized.

FAQs needed

As with all CC tools specific questions tend to reoccur. Here is a list of current FAQs for CC0 and some of the answers suggested by community members (not yet reviewed by CC):

  • Is CC keeping track of PD stuff? No
  • Is CC0 about branding? No
  • Is it a waiver or a license? It is first a waiver (akin to a quit claim deed or an abandonment of rights), and then alternatively a license if the waiver is not enforceable in a particular jurisdiction
  • What is the difference between CC0 and the existing public domain dedication?
  1. "Using 'CC0' clearly marks the difference between a work _actually_ being in the public domain, something that varies by jurisdiction and that the creator can't fully control (or so we think), to a work being _effectively_ in the public domain (to the extent possible under applicable law), which the creator _can_ control." Evan
  2. Universal instead of US-centric
  3. "The key difference from a legal standpoint is that the current CC PD dedication covers only copyright and that CC0 waiver covers other rights as well (and not just database rights)."Jordan on cc-Licenses
  • What makes CC0 Active? Publication of the work with the CC0 Waiver

We will be working to reword these informal FAQ's to be more user friendly and expand the topics covered for the official release of CC0.

Other PD Waiver/License Resources and References

CC is not the first to create a public domain waiver. Below is a list of other Public domain resources:



Community:LibriVox (audio recordings of PD books)

Name of tool used: CC public domain dedication with additional warning

Text: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain, which means people can do anything they like with them. Mostly this just means people can listen to them for free. But it also means they can: sell them (for instance on ebay), broadcast them, put them in commercials, play them at political rallies, chop them up, remix them, make music recordings of them. The recordings are free, and there is no need to credit LibriVox, although of course we much prefer if you do credit us (with a link to our site).

Here are some other examples of what people might do (and would have the right to do) with our recordings (and, if your record for us, your recordings):

   * make CDs of Romance of Rubber sold as a fundraiser for a charity you don’t like;
   * put Origin of the Species as background atmosphere for a pornographic film;
   * sample Fables for the Frivolous in a violent rap song;
   * use the summary of Frankenstein to promote a major motion picture;

Although these examples are far-fetched, they are all acceptable uses of public domain materials. So be aware of what you are doing when you free your recordings and text into the public domain. You really have to let go!

URL: full text of disclaimer and PD policies

Community:Open Clipart

CC-PD for all art work.

Name of tool: CC-PD dedication

Notes: the website has a footer that claims work is in the public domain and a few mentions of public domain in the FAQ.

Text: The clip art on this website and part of this project are released into the public domain.

URL:basic license embedded in page footer

Community: Educational

Name of tool: Educational PD dedication draft

Notes: This tool has been abandoned

Text: Open Education License Draft Draft 0.9, August 8, 2007. This is a draft document and is not yet intended for use.

Disclaimer

The OpenContent Foundation is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Distribution of this license does not create an attorney-client relationship. The OpenContent Foundation provides this information on an “as-is” basis. The OpenContent Foundation makes no warranties regarding the information provided, and disclaims liability for damages resulting from its use. License

Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to exercise any and all rights in the Work for which You would require a license under current, applicable law, including (but not limited to) the rights to:

  • Reuse the work verbatim, just exactly as you found it
  • Rework, alter, or transform the work so that it better meets your needs
  • Remix and combine the (verbatim or altered) work with other works to better meet your needs
  • Redistribute the verbatim work, the altered work, or the remixed work

Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

Unless otherwise mutually agreed to by the parties in writing, licensor offers the work as-is and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the work, express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantibility, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, or the absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence of absence of errors, whether or not discoverable. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so such exclusion may not apply to you. Limitation on Liability

Except to the extent required by applicable law, in no event will licensor be liable to you on any legal theory for any special, incidental, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages arising out of this license or the use of the work, even if licensor has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Termination

Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work).


URL:Link to tool, explanation of need and community discussion relating to the tool

Community: Internet archive

Tool: CC-PD dedication Notes: the current PD dedication is used to mark both text that are pre 1923 and recent works submitted by others.

URL: Many different sections including moving images, audio

Community: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Notes: Government work, no copyright. Text: NOAA maintains a library of video footage, which is compiled and categorized by subject. It’s available for the cost of reproduction on a public domain basis — no license or clearance required. It’s requested that you credit “NOAA” or “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” when using the footage. URL: NOAA website with PD note

In progress

Library of Congress - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/spaldingbib:@field(TITLE+@od1(Spalding%27s+official+base+ball+guide,+1917)) Clearly PD item, 1917, rights link leads to a generic copyright disclamer page

xxx musopen.com Note: No license just one sentence on PD URL:

xxx http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/_use.htm Images of American Political History. Posting online by Dr. William J. Ball. All images are believed to be in the public domain. Please do not contact me for permission to use them Using the Collection

The intent of this collection is to support the teaching of American political history by providing quick access to uncopyrighted images for inclusion in teaching materials.

All images are strongly believed to be in the public domain. They were obtained from non-copyrighted U.S. government holdings and publications and from published works with clearly expired copyrights. Thus there are absolutely no restrictions on their use.

Images are provided in two sizes and in JPEG format for easy retrieval and use. The small size averages 400 pixels in the long dimension and 100k while the "full size" averages 1200 pixels in the long dimension and 320k. Note that the file sizes are rather large for JPEGs. Low compression was used so that these images could be edited and recompressed by the end user. As a result, download times will be slow with 56k modem access.

Images can be located through the browse/search page. Links to images contain brief captions and are listed in approximate chronological order. Browse and search links connect to pages with a small image and additional descriptive information. Clicking on the small image loads the full sized version of the image. Either sized image may be saved to disk. Small image pages also include "VCR" buttons as an additional browsing option.

Images are very briefly described with captions, and in some cases with more detailed descriptions and keywords on the small image page. Some captions/descriptions are directly quoted from the original, especially where usage is obsolete or the caption is highly slanted. No attempt is made in this collection to provide the historical context or interpretation of the relevance of these images. Rather, they are supplied as raw material for user already familiar with their importance to U.S. political history.

xxx Newgate Calendar, Clear PD no mention of copyright on images page. http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ngillus.htm

xxx http://tulrich.com/fonts/ Public Domain fonts "Here are my dabblings in font design. I have placed them in the Public Domain. This is all 100% my own work. Usage is totally unrestricted. If you want to make derivative works for any purpose, please go ahead."

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