more Creative Commons Humbug legal terms clean-up

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: "Ethan Ackerman"<eackerma () u washington edu>
Sent: 7/22/05 8:31:59 AM
To: "dave () farber net"<dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP]more Creative Commons Humbug legal terms clean-up

Greetings Dave,
The Creative Commons posts have probably raised public awareness of how
copyright and the licensing process work a good bit, and I wanted to keep
that positive trend going and do my part to continue the 'self-correcting'
aspects of your list.

Jeffrey Kay expresses some valid policy concerns but does make one
misstatement of copyright law as it relates to licensing of copyrighted
works.  It is an easy mistake to make, I can't fault him at all because I
agree with his sentiments and because determining when licenses can trump
copyright laws, and when copyright laws trump licenses, is generally
"unsettled law."


The statement:--
 "After some point in time, copyrighted products become part of the public
domain.  Licensed products do not. Therefore, content licensed under the
non-commercial proviso could conceivably _never_ become available for
commercial use."
--just isn't right.

All works covered by copyright law DO become part of the public domain at
the end of their copyrighted term.
Slapping a license on the work doesn't keep it out of the public domain, it
goes there by operation of law. Once a work is in the public domain, it can
be used commercially or otherwise.
You cannot extend the term of protection of copyrighted work with a license.

-Ethan

-----Original Message-----

Begin forwarded message:
From: Jeffrey Kay <jeff () k2 com>
Date: July 21, 2005 4:56:39 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Creative Commons Humbug says Dvorak


[...]
After some point in time, copyrighted products become part of the public
domain.  Licensed products do not. Therefore, content licensed under the
non-commercial proviso could conceivably _never_ become available for
commercial use.
[...]


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