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2560	9200	All right. I'll go ahead and get started here. Welcome, everybody. I'm Jim Rennie
9200	14240	and this is Licensing Agreements 101, the Creative Commons license. And if
14240	19920	anybody here doesn't know what the Creative Commons license is, basically it
19920	29320	allows content creators to license their content, but reserve some rights in
29320	33540	addition. We're going to get into all that in just a second. But before we do,
33540	38920	because we're going to be talking about the law and legal theories, copyright, we
38920	43960	have to have a disclaimer. All right, this presentation is for educational
43960	50400	purposes only. It is not legal advice, only my opinion on what the law is. I am
50400	51920	not a lawyer yet.
54440	58240	All right, entertainment. I don't know if you're gonna be entertained by this, but
58240	64340	you could be. All right, and if you require legal advice, you should talk to
64520	68520	a lawyer who is licensed to practice law where you live, either your state or your
68520	73400	country if you don't live in the U.S. All right, now we can get on with the show.
74540	79440	Here's what we're going to be doing over the next 45 minutes or so. I'll have a quick
79440	83620	introduction, a little more about who I am and why I'm here, and then short
83620	87400	background on the Creative Commons license, who created it, why it was
87400	91500	created, and then we're gonna walk through the license section by section.
91560	95800	But don't worry, I'm not actually going to read the license to you. You should
95800	98960	read it yourself, and it would be terribly, terribly boring for me to stand
98960	102960	up here and read the license to you. But we are gonna go through section by
102960	106720	section, so after the con, if you want to go back and compare the actual license
106720	110020	to what we talked about here, you could probably teach yourself a little more
110020	115260	about the law. And then we're gonna have how to maximize your protection under
115260	119180	the license, which is really short. There's like two things you need to know
119180	124080	to be fully covered under the Creative Commons license. And if we have time at
124080	128100	the end, we will have question and answer. Although I'm not promising anything, but
128100	133400	hopefully we will have time. All right, first of all, like I said, my name is Jim
133400	138160	and I'm not affiliated with the Creative Commons in any way. You can take that as
138280	143420	a plus or minus. I am a law student currently studying law in New York City.
143420	149060	So like I said, I'm not a lawyer yet. Hopefully I will be. And why am I talking
149060	154000	about the Creative Commons license? And that breaks down into two sections. First,
154000	157800	it's because a lot of people all across the internet are starting to use the
157800	160980	Creative Commons license for their content. There's a lot of commercial
160980	165600	services that utilize the Creative Commons license. And on the other hand,
165600	170640	why am I talking about Creative Commons license instead of, say, the GPL? And the
170640	173480	answer to that is because the Creative Commons license is a little easier to
173480	178960	understand, easier to get through in 50 minutes, and because a lot of what I'm
178960	183640	talking about today will apply to the GPL and other licensing agreements. So you
183640	188400	can take what you've learned and apply it to other licenses, hopefully. And I'm
188400	192040	talking about the Creative Commons because it's really important to know
192040	196240	your rights. And you'll see, basically, you are giving up your rights to the
196240	202040	public when you license your content under this license. And you really need
202040	206360	to know how to protect yourself, what to expect, and if you're a user of the
206360	210800	content, you need to make sure that you follow the license correctly so that you
210800	217620	don't breach the license and could end up in a lawsuit, which nobody wants. Okay, so
217620	221920	what kind of people use the Creative Commons license? Mostly people who are
221920	226800	creating content, not so much coders and programmers, lots of writers and bloggers,
226800	233000	etc. And these commercial services have built-in Creative Commons licensing,
233000	238220	like Movable Type, TypePad for bloggers, Flickr, you can go search for Creative
238220	244320	Commons photos, and even Yahoo and LimeWire have searches specifically for
244320	249380	Creative Commons licensed material. And I'm sure the number of commercial
249380	253560	services that utilize Creative Commons is going to grow as the years go on.
255300	259880	So the Creative Commons itself is a nonprofit organization, and they
259880	265160	originally founded at Harvard in 2001 by such notable people as Lawrence Lessig,
265160	271640	who is on the board, and it's currently at Stanford Law School, Center for
271640	275540	Internet Law and Society, which is run by Jennifer Granik, who is going to be
275540	279820	speaking here, I think, in about an hour and 45 minutes.
282980	287320	Now, the Creative Commons license, why was it created? Well, first of all, it really
287320	292180	was meant to be a non-coder counterpart to the GPL, and there was the perceived
292180	297140	need. What was the need? Well, under federal and state law, originally, there
297140	301780	was full copyright control and public domain on the other side. Full
301780	306600	copyright control, meaning the creator of the content had full control over who
306600	311480	could use it, when they could use it, why they could use it, except for fair use.
311640	317860	All right, thank you. But in general, the creator of the content dictated the terms
317860	322880	when anybody could use it. On the other hand, there was public domain, which meant
322880	326780	the public could use it anytime they wanted to, and the original creator had
326780	332500	no control over their content. And so there was a need in the community for an
332500	336200	in-between point, and that's what the Creative Commons license really is, in-between
337160	343360	copyright control and public domain. And of course, there's the free software ideals
343800	347960	that information wants to be free. We want to share our content with others so that
347960	351540	we can all be more creative, build on each other's content. We don't want to hide
351540	359340	our content, just use it ourselves. So when you select a Creative Commons license,
359340	365420	there are actually several options you can choose from. And attribution is always
365420	369820	required. You have to have the attribution clause in your Creative Commons license.
369860	374380	But the non-commercial use requirement and share-alike requirement, also known as
374380	379120	copy left, those are optional, but we're going to go through those today.
379120	384420	And today, we're going through the version 2.5 license, which I found pretty interesting
384420	388560	because my personal blog, I think, is still under version 1.0. I didn't actually realize
388560	394400	Creative Commons revs their licenses occasionally. So you should go home and check if your content,
394400	399140	what version is licensed under. The Creative Commons still keeps the old versions up and
399140	403080	on the web, so you're not in any danger if you have an old version of it, the license
403080	407000	not being valid, but they do update the legal language from time to time.
409120	417080	All right. Before we get into the actual wording of the Creative Commons license, we have to
417080	423300	go over some basic legal terms concerning licensing agreements. And the first is, what
423300	428860	exactly is a license? A license is basically giving some of your rights or privileges to
428860	433260	someone else who doesn't have them. So, for example, we're all sitting here in the parking
433260	437920	lot of the Alexis Park today, but this is private property. And normally, if you're
437920	443000	on someone's private property without permission, you can be arrested for trespassing. So the
443000	449120	Alexis Park has granted a license to DEF CON and basically to us to be here without
449120	453400	trespassing. So that's what a license is. They're granting the right of use of the
453400	462620	property to us for a limited amount of time. All right. I know this is called licensing
462620	468980	agreements, but the Creative Commons license is actually a contract. And so we have to
468980	474460	define what's a contract. A contract is an agreement between at least two parties, and
474460	479320	you have to exchange something for there to be a valid contract. If it's only one person
479320	483860	giving something to someone else, that's a gift and not a contract. So there has to be
483860	490180	an exchange going on. And the parties have to act as if they're under the contract. You
490180	496140	do not have to sign a contract for it to be valid. You just have to act as though you're
497260	501540	behaving... modify your behavior so that you fall under the contract, act as though you're
501540	508200	using the content as if you're under the contract, and you will be bound to the contract. And
508200	513100	contracts are governed by state law. This is very important. This is why I said at the
513100	517980	beginning, you need to talk to lawyers who live in your state if you have questions about
517980	522940	the law. Because all contract law is governed by state law and varies from state to state.
523140	531320	So to be sure, you always have to talk to a lawyer in your state. So we combine those
531320	536440	two, a contract and a license, and we get a licensing agreement. And under the creative
536440	542180	commons, what the agreement is, is the creator of the content allows people to use that
542180	548260	content how they wish with certain restrictions. And the content user agrees to those
548260	555300	restrictions and has to follow them, which is called a legal detriment because they're
555300	560760	obeying additional rules that they wouldn't have had to obey otherwise. And so that creates
560920	572590	a licensing agreement. Sorry, just a second. Okay. So I know a lot of you are sitting out
572590	577110	there, or maybe some of you, and you're thinking, well, this is all about copyright and what
577110	582690	is copyright. And copyright is under federal law. Why does he keep talking about state
582690	587830	law and why state law is important? This goes back to what I said before. Basically, federal
587830	593850	copyright law creates this bundle of rights that you have any time you create your content.
594550	599210	And copyright, your content is copyrighted the instant you create it. You don't have to do
599210	604470	anything special to gain copyrights. But once you gain those rights and parcel them out to
604470	609330	other people through licensing agreements, that's a contract, and contracts are always falling
609330	616350	under state law. So unless the contract has language that goes directly against federal law
616350	622830	in some way, you should always be covered under state law. All right. Now we're going to get
622830	630010	into some of the actual language of the Creative Commons Agreement. And as I go through, I'm
630010	634930	going to try to emphasize what each section means for you, what the practical implications are
635410	642710	of each section. And so the first one is they define terms they use throughout the contract.
643150	648790	And they define actually six or seven terms, but most important for us are these two,
648790	656290	collective works and derivative works. Now, collective work is any work that redistributes content
656290	663010	that is unmodified, but in a collection with other content. Obvious examples are like a mixed CD
663010	667450	with the original version of the song with other songs, or a collection of short stories.
667450	671590	Those are collective works. They have the unmodified work bundled with other works.
672170	677270	Now, derivative works build upon or change the original work that's being licensed.
678150	686850	So again, obvious examples are remixes of songs, or say if there's a novel and you create a sequel
686850	692510	based on the characters or situations in the first novel, that's a derivative work because you're reusing
692510	701710	that person's ideas. And a work under the Creative Commons, a work is either collective or derivative,
701710	708330	but not both. And my guess would be if you had a collection of derivative works, you'd probably fall
708330	714050	under the derivative works section. At least that's my impression.
716250	722970	All right, section two. Section two is important because it reminds us that the Creative Commons license
722970	729850	explicitly does not want to impede upon fair use rights. Fair use rights are still intact.
729850	737170	And what is fair use? It means that any content that's out there under normal federal copyright, you can use
737170	743190	in a limited way. Like, for example, if you're writing a book review, you can quote some dialogue from the book,
743190	749590	and that's a fair use, probably, because you're not republishing the whole work and it's for critique.
751050	759170	And it's also important to note that because fair use is not being limited in any way, if you're a licensor
759170	766130	of content, if you're a content creator with your content under the Creative Commons, people don't have to use
766130	772730	your content under the Creative Commons. They can choose to follow fair use instead. You're making an offer
772730	779070	for a contract for them to use the Creative Commons, but they don't have to agree to it. They can use fair use.
780450	786230	And it also does not restrict first sale rights. The creator of the content retains all rights to sell their work
786230	791950	and license it in other ways. And there are also other copyright privileges, which I don't want to get into,
791950	793750	because I'll be here for another hour.
796350	802870	All right, section three, the license grant. Now, how is the Creative Commons license being granted?
803370	812230	It's a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license. So most of these are pretty self-explanatory.
812230	818450	Worldwide, obviously, anybody in the world can use it. You're not restricting only U.S. use or distribution.
818770	824210	Royalty-free, you don't have to pay anything, ever, if you use a work under the Creative Commons.
824910	831370	Non-exclusive, anybody who wants to can come use your content. And perpetual, meaning it lasts for the life of the copyright,
831370	835650	which in the U.S. is 70 years after the original creator's death, at least for written works.
835650	838570	And I actually forgot to look. Is that right for all works?
839630	850270	Okay. Okay. Which we're assuming all of us are natural people here, so... okay.
852010	857250	And... all right. No.
858130	863030	But I believe Congress keeps extending the deadline for corporate-created works.
864350	868630	That's kind of Disney's fault, in a way, because they don't want to lose the Mickey Mouse copyright.
870410	875750	All right. Section 3, continuing on, is what exactly is being granted.
876510	881270	And you have, under the Creative Commons license, if you want to utilize someone's work,
881270	885570	you have the right to reproduce it as a collective work or create derivative works,
886070	889830	and you also have public performance rights, which are very important.
889830	893170	You're not limited to creating work for your personal enjoyment.
893170	896610	You have the right to create it for everybody's enjoyment.
897250	905430	All right. Section 4 is the share alike, also popularly known as copy left.
906570	912110	And there are two different sections, protections for both collective and derivative works,
912110	916110	and protections just for collective and just for derivative works.
917490	920570	So basically, share alike or copy left, if you don't know,
920570	927410	it requires the creator of a collective or derivative work to also place their work under the Creative Commons license
927410	931490	so the license gets perpetuated down the line,
931490	936010	and so that the work will always be in the Creative Commons and everybody can always enjoy it.
937510	943210	Now, you have to include a copy of the Creative Commons license, or at least a pointer to it,
943210	948190	and you may not sub-license the work, which is a short quote,
948190	953750	which basically means that you're not allowed... it means several things legally,
953750	961430	but basically it means that you're not allowed to license only part of the work or license it for a limited time.
961430	963950	You have to use the entire Creative Commons license.
963950	970070	You can't change the license. You can't limit the license in any way.
970070	975130	And there are restrictions on adding additional copy protection.
975230	982270	You're not allowed to add additional copy protections to works you create if you're utilizing Creative Commons content.
982890	990070	So, for example, if your original work was something in MP3, which is pretty widely usable,
990770	997950	you're not allowed to then create a derivative work and place it in, like, a proprietary player with additional copy protection.
997950	1005610	You have to keep the amount of copy protection, or presumably lessen it, in a collective or derivative work,
1005610	1009990	which is a nice touch so that we're not all stuck in DMCA problems.
1012730	1015610	All right, protections just for collective works.
1015610	1019170	And this is a pretty cool protection that the Creative Commons has provided.
1020850	1027250	All right, if someone is using your work in a collective work, you can request that they remove the attribution.
1027250	1031230	Now, attribution is normally required, but you can request they remove it.
1031230	1038250	So, for example, say, like, the RIAA decides to use your work, which they could. Anybody can use it.
1038250	1044710	And there's your name plastered big and bold as the creator of this work right up next to the RIAA who are distributing it.
1044710	1048270	And you decide, you know, I really don't need that.
1049230	1054970	You can request that they remove your name from your work, and it'll just be anonymous from that point on.
1056650	1061490	The only caveat to this is the request has to be reasonable.
1062050	1068670	So, say they print 1,000 copies of a book with your work in it, and they distributed it to bookstores across the country.
1068670	1073170	You can't call them up and make them recall all the books from the bookstore and destroy them.
1073330	1078290	You can, however, require them not to put your name on the work from that point forward.
1081310	1083290	All right, protections just for derivative.
1084470	1088170	The distributor can pick a substantially similar license.
1088490	1094530	Now, what this means is there are key elements to Creative Commons licenses, the ones you choose when you pick your license.
1094530	1098550	Like, today we're doing attribution, noncommercial, share alike.
1098750	1104590	As long as you keep those main elements, you can change the country that the license applies to.
1105010	1110110	So, let's say someone takes your music that was licensed under Creative Commons, someone in the UK.
1110110	1116510	They're allowed to change it from the US license to the UK license, as long as they keep those main elements.
1117390	1125310	And so, I mean, all the smart lawyers at the Creative Commons, I'm sure, are trying very hard to make the licenses as similar as possible, country to country.
1125530	1129190	So, this is one of those places where we trust the Creative Commons that they're doing that.
1129250	1130350	And I'm sure they are.
1131370	1138450	So, just, if you have content out there, and you see the license has changed to a different country, don't be worried.
1138450	1140350	This is perfectly acceptable.
1142650	1146230	All right, 4C, noncommercial use.
1147570	1151410	I have to admit, this is the one part of the license that is kind of bizarre.
1151770	1155150	Because here's the quote for the noncommercial use clause.
1155150	1167230	A noncommercial use means you cannot use the work, quote, in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.
1167230	1172050	And the first couple times I read that, I thought, what the hell does that mean?
1172850	1177730	And then the second thing I thought was, you know, I could make a lot of money litigating about this pretty easily.
1178910	1184350	Because, I mean, terms like primarily intended commercial advantage, these are very squishy terms.
1184350	1185910	They're not very exact.
1185910	1192010	And these are the kind of terms that lawyers argue about and spend tons of money arguing about all the time.
1192010	1198830	And I actually had a chance to talk to Wendy Seltzer from the EFF about this clause because I was mystified by it.
1199070	1206250	And she said they wanted to have a little bit of a wider clause to catch more commercial uses in this.
1206650	1211950	And, which is a good thing, however, at the expense of certainty.
1212670	1217790	So, what's primarily intended, what's commercial advantage, I can't tell you.
1221090	1222050	Yes.
1222970	1229770	One example I could think of was, say Amazon decides to print up Creative Commons works and sell them on their website.
1229770	1234310	But they sell them at cost, so they're not making any money off the work.
1234390	1241250	However, then they start to advertise, hey, we're the only place on the internet you can come and get printed versions of Creative Commons works.
1241250	1244270	Aren't we great? You should come visit Amazon.com.
1244270	1247150	That would probably be commercial advantage.
1247150	1255250	Because they're gaining reputation, they're spending advertising, getting PR from it.
1256390	1261030	Now, there's a special exception for file sharing and P2P applications.
1261030	1273930	If anybody's followed the Grokster case that was in the Supreme Court, one of the things the Supreme Court didn't really like about Grokster is that it had banner ads next to people's copyrighted content.
1273930	1279470	And so they said that Grokster was profiting from everybody's content because they had these banner ads.
1279470	1284190	And the more users they had on their service, the more money they made off the ads.
1284670	1294950	The Creative Commons says that, by definition, file sharing and P2P applications do not gain commercial advantage from distributing Creative Commons works.
1295710	1301150	So your Creative Commons works can always be distributed across file sharing applications, and there's never a problem with that.
1304150	1311530	This is the attribution clause and what's required to properly attribute someone under the Creative Commons.
1311790	1316470	So if you're a user of content, you want to take special note of these, obviously.
1316730	1325590	Because if you don't attribute someone properly, theoretically you could get sued or you are at least in breach of the contract.
1325650	1329850	And breach is the fancy lawyer word for you're not following the contract and could get sued.
1329850	1340410	So you have to include the notice that's under the Creative Commons, the name of the original author or their pseudonym if they don't have a real name.
1340410	1344050	It explicitly states that the pseudonyms work fine.
1344390	1347970	The title of the work and a pointer to the work if there is one.
1348730	1357410	Now for derivative works, they require special credit, such as based on the original novel by so-and-so, based on the original song by so-and-so.
1357410	1363310	So as long as you do all of these things, when you reuse a work, you should be in the clear.
1365930	1370890	All right, this is actually more bizarre than the commercial advantage stuff.
1371810	1375130	And I think this just got added in a recent version of the license.
1375690	1378770	There's a section purely for music royalties.
1379010	1385310	And it reserves the right of the content creator to collect royalties if there's a commercial performance.
1385310	1391870	However, if you remember, we already said this is a royalty-free license, and you're not allowed to use it commercially.
1393030	1402330	So now there's a section basically saying, if you break your promise to use it commercially, I can break my promise to not require royalties, but only for music.
1408280	1411380	No. Audio recordings.
1414720	1416440	Printed work is not covered.
1421550	1422830	Probably not.
1422830	1433550	He was asking if he creates a work, if there's a printed work as the original work, he creates a spoken word version, is that under the music royalty section?
1433790	1435010	And I don't think so.
1435470	1436850	If he sings it.
1437390	1441950	No, I think it's based on what the original work is, and if the original work is music or not.
1443490	1446850	And this is totally bizarre, and I don't understand this section at all.
1446850	1455490	Because when we go on later, you'll see that once someone breaches the non-commercial use section, they're pretty screwed.
1455910	1467910	And so the only thing I could think of for why this section is now in the license is to give judges a clue as to how to define damages when someone gets sued for commercially performing music.
1468110	1469570	That's the only thing I could come up with.
1469570	1472930	Otherwise, this clause seems sort of out of place.
1472930	1479550	So that just goes to show you, even law students who have studied this thing for months can't figure this crap out half the time.
1481810	1485290	All right, next section we have, the warranty disclaimer.
1486390	1492730	Now, this isn't as big a deal for people who do creative works like writings, photography, music.
1492890	1498490	This is a much bigger deal for coders. Coders should be much more worried about warranties than they are.
1498610	1500110	But that's a different talk.
1501250	1509130	Basically, under state law, states place, in a way, they place language into every contract.
1509930	1512130	And these are called implied warranties.
1512750	1519510	Basically saying that your work is not... easier examples are for coders, so I'm going to do one.
1519950	1527070	An implied warranty for programming would be that your work's not going to format someone's hard drive or destroy their computer if they use it.
1527070	1532270	Because there's an implied warranty that it actually does what it says it does and won't screw someone over.
1533110	1538190	However, for content creators, it's kind of like, eh, I don't know, what's a photograph going to do to you?
1538450	1539850	Do to your computer?
1540070	1545650	The big one is the non-infringement clause, which basically says, here's this content I made.
1545650	1550510	I'm making no guarantees that it's not infringing on someone else's content.
1550510	1552450	And don't come sue me if it is.
1552450	1560250	The problem with all this is that some states do not allow you to waive these warranties.
1560790	1564670	This section attempts to do that, but not all states allow that.
1564690	1570990	And this is a purely state-by-state thing, and I cannot give you guidance about what your state does with implied warranties.
1571150	1575010	This is something, if you're concerned about it, that you need to talk to a lawyer.
1575110	1577970	But for most content users, it's mostly not a big deal.
1578390	1580070	Content creators, excuse me.
1580790	1585370	Section 6 is very similar. It's the limit on liability.
1585610	1592250	Basically attempting to shield the original creator from lawsuits based on their work.
1595690	1606530	And once again, this very state-by-state is under the same category as the attempted waiver of warranty in the previous section.
1606530	1613970	This is another thing. If you're worried about possible liability because of your work, you should probably go talk to a lawyer.
1614610	1621510	I would say 99% of us who have blogs with our rants and photos don't really care. No one's going to sue us.
1621510	1628270	But if you have more controversial work, if your work might be found obscene, for example, this might be a problem.
1628730	1631270	And if you're a coder, like I said, you should be worried.
1631270	1636650	All right. Section 7.
1636650	1640590	What happens when somebody violates the license or breaches the license?
1641590	1646690	Any breach by the content users immediately ends the license.
1646850	1649590	Immediate, instant license is over.
1650210	1656630	And this is a pretty cool protection because, you know, you're out there offering your work to people on the Internet.
1656630	1660770	You don't know who's downloading the work. You don't know who's using the work.
1660770	1665530	You probably will never even know who's redistributing it or creating derivative works.
1665730	1670870	So it would be a pain in the ass if there was a requirement that you go find that person if they're in breach,
1670870	1677530	go find them and tell them to stop using your work or tell them that you're going to sue them, have a cease and desist.
1677830	1683410	None of that is required. The license terminates instantly if the content user breaches.
1683410	1684270	Yeah.
1694120	1696540	Yeah. Okay.
1729760	1733000	So basically there's a chain of licenses, you're saying.
1737580	1744260	Oh, I see. So they're saying, like, my example before, you can request your attribution be removed.
1744300	1751360	And you're asking if someone then uses the work where the attribution has been removed, they don't know who you are,
1751360	1755320	can you then, are they in breach for not attributing you?
1762590	1763470	Right.
1769730	1772850	That's a good question. I don't have a good answer right now.
1774750	1784950	I'm not sure because resharing derivatives many times, derivative works many times is one of the really hard questions about copyleft in general.
1785350	1788170	And I'm not going to attempt to solve it right now.
1791460	1793140	All right.
1793340	1804380	And as it says here, the only sections of the license that don't end when someone breaches are sections 5 and 6, the ones limiting warranties and liabilities.
1804380	1813140	So you're still protected from being sued, however, the content user no longer has any rights and it reverts back to federal copyright controls.
1813140	1819960	Which means they have very little rights and if they're creating a derivative work, they're probably screwed under federal copyright.
1823280	1824340	All right.
1824340	1829300	What happens when you want to revoke the license, you want to take your work back out of the creative commons?
1829660	1831600	And the short answer is you can't.
1831900	1834360	Because remember we said the license is perpetual.
1834700	1842700	And you'll see in some upcoming sections that there's even bigger issues for the content creator if they want to remove their content from creative commons.
1842700	1846940	The long version is you could create a fork in your content.
1847880	1851040	Which is an easy concept in the coder world.
1851040	1854020	It's kind of a bizarre concept in the content world.
1854720	1862760	Basically, since you can't revoke anybody who's already downloaded your picture or whatever and is reusing it, you can't tell them to stop.
1863820	1867040	They retain that license as long as they want to.
1867040	1868220	It's perpetual.
1868220	1873560	You can remove the offer of the contract for future people.
1873620	1876740	So future users can't download that picture under creative commons.
1876740	1880540	But those people who already have a license will retain the license.
1880600	1885340	So then you have two versions, potentially, of the exact same content.
1886000	1888560	Existing under different licensing arrangements.
1890680	1892460	The exact same content.
1893120	1897140	If it's a photograph, for example, it could be exactly the same.
1897140	1900640	But the people who already have a license, you can't take it back from them.
1900760	1903920	Or you can, but then you'd be in breach and you could get sued instead.
1917120	1920320	He asked what the evidentiary requirement is.
1920320	1922960	And I'm not a lawyer, and I can't tell you.
1924140	1927200	And it will depend on the state.
1927520	1929340	And I couldn't tell you even if I knew.
1929700	1931300	Because that would be legal advice.
1931300	1946140	All right, here's the reason why the content creator is in some trouble
1946140	1949880	if they want to remove their license from the creative commons.
1950280	1953140	The creative commons has language where basically,
1953140	1958500	if you're the content creator and you're licensing it under creative commons,
1958500	1966140	you promise with this contract to relicense it every time a content user wants you to.
1966140	1968680	Every time they're redistributing or performing the work,
1968680	1971820	you are automatically renewing their license.
1972080	1974560	And I'm under the impression this is some legal footwork
1974560	1978420	to get around rules about perpetuity.
1978420	1980740	Are you a law student?
1981560	1982720	No, not anymore.
1982720	1983460	Okay.
1983720	1987000	But yeah, there's rules against perpetuity,
1987000	1990160	which are extremely complicated and I don't want to talk about.
1991320	1994120	But basically, this gets around it by,
1994120	1999380	the content creator regrants the license every time the content user needs one.
2000100	2002320	And so that's why the content creator is going to be put in breach
2002320	2004800	if they stop regranting the license.
2009160	2011140	This is the severability clause.
2011140	2015460	It basically says that if one part of the creative commons license is found to be void,
2015460	2018100	the rest of the contract will still be valid.
2018580	2022660	So we talked earlier about those warranty and liability sections
2022660	2027560	and how those vary state by state and they may not be valid in your state.
2027800	2030060	This is saying that if some judge says,
2030060	2032360	hey, those warranty sections are no good,
2032360	2034820	I'm going to strike those out of the creative commons license
2034820	2036400	in this situation,
2036400	2039620	the rest of the contract will live on
2039620	2042100	and continue to operate.
2042100	2046020	You'll continue to have your protections and be able to use the work.
2047300	2050920	And so that's a pretty cool protection from the creative commons people.
2050920	2052540	This is not a required thing.
2052540	2055960	There's many contracts where as soon as one section is found void,
2055960	2057720	the whole thing is found void.
2058720	2064310	All right, section 8D, waiver.
2065650	2070310	So waiver is knowingly giving up a right that you have under a contract.
2071590	2076030	Waiver basically can completely remove a section of the contract.
2076030	2079990	It cannot modify or add to the creative commons license,
2079990	2083210	but you can completely remove a section by waiving it.
2084030	2086790	And this is not something you generally want to do.
2087290	2090730	And the creative commons has made it exceptionally hard for you to do it.
2091210	2093050	Your waiver must be in writing,
2093050	2096590	and it must be physically signed by both parties.
2097650	2101710	Now under normal law, you can waive things by accident.
2102270	2103910	And this happens all the time.
2104410	2106190	The creative commons is helping protect you
2106190	2110930	by making sure you really want to remove part of the licensing agreement
2110930	2112750	before you actually do it.
2113530	2116010	So for example, if someone comes to you,
2116190	2117410	a company comes to you and says,
2117410	2120010	hey, we love your work, it's really great,
2120010	2122070	but we want to use it commercially.
2122710	2125330	But we're willing to abide by the other terms of the license,
2125330	2126590	but we need to use it commercially,
2126590	2128490	we want to make some money off your content.
2128650	2130830	This is the way you could theoretically do that.
2130830	2135050	You could waive the non-commercial use clause using waiver,
2135050	2136970	and allow them to use it commercially,
2136970	2139710	make an exception to the licensing agreement.
2139710	2141410	But you don't want to do this normally.
2147270	2150570	The exception is just for the one company,
2150570	2152870	the person who's signing the agreement.
2152870	2154470	It's only valid for them.
2160560	2161480	What was that?
2165820	2166780	Yeah?
2173150	2174130	All right.
2174130	2176790	And finally, at the end of the creative commons license,
2176790	2178370	there's a little part that says,
2178370	2180230	please, oh please, don't sue us.
2181670	2183490	Basically, the creative commons, they're saying,
2183490	2185350	they created this license for you,
2185350	2187310	they created this license for us all to use,
2187310	2190770	so that we can distribute our content more openly,
2190770	2192390	so that people can reuse it.
2192390	2195150	But it's not their fault if something goes bad.
2195750	2197830	And even if it is, even if you think it is,
2197830	2199350	please don't sue the creative commons.
2199350	2200350	They're nice people.
2204190	2205330	Thank you, EFF.
2207250	2208170	All right.
2208170	2210470	So, let's talk about how to maximize your protection
2210470	2212850	under the creative commons license.
2212850	2215110	There's only two things, well, not only,
2215110	2218170	but there's two things that are really important for you to know.
2218470	2222490	You need to make sure the content users are bound to the license,
2222490	2226570	and make sure content users know what content is covered by the license.
2227110	2227550	All right.
2227550	2232710	First, how do you make sure content users are bound to the license?
2235170	2240090	And the answer is, make sure they can read the contract.
2240490	2242150	Not make sure they do read it,
2242150	2244050	make sure they can read it.
2244270	2247070	That's why we've all seen those obnoxious pop-ups
2247070	2249150	that happen right after we install software,
2249150	2251910	the EULA that pops up in a really obnoxious window,
2251910	2253510	you have to click I accept.
2253850	2256270	Because the commercial companies are making sure
2256270	2259450	that you have an opportunity to read the contract.
2259450	2266110	Under the law, as long as you have an opportunity to read the contract,
2266110	2269290	you are legally assumed to have read the contract.
2269530	2273070	And even if you didn't, no court will ever accept the excuse of
2273070	2274750	I didn't read the contract.
2274750	2276170	Ever, ever, ever.
2276710	2279290	If you only learn one thing from the talk,
2280030	2284130	it should be that not reading a contract won't help you.
2284290	2286310	In fact, it'll probably hurt you.
2286310	2291370	So you just have to make sure that people have an opportunity to read the license.
2291590	2295410	Don't put the copyright notice at the bottom of the page in six-point font
2295410	2298570	saying this page covered by Creative Commons.
2298950	2300270	You don't want to hide it away,
2300270	2302450	at least have the little Creative Commons icon
2303490	2305630	near your navigation like most people have
2305630	2307270	that says some rights reserved.
2307810	2309190	That should be enough.
2309230	2312310	But don't hide it away, put it in a prominent place.
2314250	2317270	The next part is make sure you let everybody know
2317270	2319670	what part of your site is covered.
2320270	2323190	A lot of sites I see just have the little Creative Commons icon
2323190	2325930	saying this site covered by Creative Commons,
2325930	2327190	some rights reserved.
2327190	2330850	But it's not always clear exactly what content they mean.
2331050	2333430	If you have a mix of text and pictures,
2333930	2336150	is the text cover not the pictures?
2336150	2337950	Are they both under Creative Commons?
2338170	2340710	Is your site design covered by Creative Commons?
2340710	2342310	Is your site logo covered?
2342310	2344370	Is your CSS file covered?
2344870	2346170	Who knows?
2347150	2349950	So the important part is clearly tell people
2349950	2353750	what parts are covered by the license.
2354230	2356630	Just put a little line before the icon
2356630	2359510	that says all text on the site covered by the Creative Commons
2359510	2362730	or all pictures on the site covered by Creative Commons
2363930	2365530	or all content, right?
2365530	2367870	If you do that, you'll be way ahead of the game.
2367870	2369950	And it really makes it easier for content users
2369950	2372450	so they know which content they can use
2373110	2374910	and which they can't.
2375270	2378210	And please put a copyright or Creative Commons notice
2378210	2381450	on every page that you want to release
2381450	2383330	under the Creative Commons.
2383470	2385190	Someone might deep-link to your site
2385190	2387850	and someone coming to your site may not be aware
2387850	2390030	that this deep-linked page with no icon
2390030	2392410	is covered under the Creative Commons.
2392830	2395790	So to be safe, put the icon on every page.
2397930	2398890	Okay.
2399850	2402590	Now, I've talked a lot about people getting sued
2404410	2406630	and bad things that might happen to you
2406630	2408770	if you don't follow the license correctly.
2409070	2411790	But, I mean, 99% of the time,
2411790	2413470	all the content put under the license
2413470	2415890	or all the content that you use under the license,
2416470	2418650	all those transactions will go just fine.
2418650	2420490	You shouldn't have to worry too much.
2420690	2423750	But the important part is to understand your rights.
2423750	2425750	Understand what you can and can't do
2425750	2428310	under the license to protect yourself.
2428590	2430350	I mean, you really are giving up your rights here.
2430350	2432730	You're giving up your copyrights to the community,
2432730	2434410	so you should know what you're doing.
2434990	2438050	And if you feel unsure, like I said, contact a lawyer.
2438410	2441210	I know a lot of people can't afford a lawyer,
2441210	2444090	but there are free legal services available.
2444590	2446430	If you go to almost any law school,
2446430	2448930	you can probably get some sort of free legal advice.
2449070	2450770	I know in New York, where I live,
2450770	2452170	there's Lawyers for the Arts
2452170	2455410	who give free legal advice to artists,
2455410	2457150	and this would be right up their alley.
2457390	2460350	So there are options for you if you do have legal concerns.
2461990	2465870	Before I take more questions, let me put this up.
2465950	2470570	If you want to learn more about copyright or licensing agreements,
2470570	2472030	here are some really good sites.
2472370	2475310	The U.S. Copyright Office, obvious one.
2475430	2477410	The Creative Commons site itself.
2477470	2480650	The EFF has a really great new Blogger's Law Guide
2480650	2482470	that they released just recently.
2482990	2484010	And if you haven't already,
2484010	2486590	I encourage you to go out to the EFF dunk tank
2486590	2488730	and contribute to the EFF.
2489710	2492650	North Carolina State has a nice little tutorial
2492650	2494670	that I Googled up and found.
2495850	2499150	And it's mostly about how to avoid infringing copyrights,
2499150	2500910	because this is university students,
2500910	2502430	so there's an audience for this.
2502530	2504850	They're mostly worried about people ripping off music.
2504890	2506790	But it's a good overall tutorial.
2507070	2510390	And finally, if you have access to Lexis or Westlaw,
2510390	2512890	this is a really great article about the GPL
2512890	2514670	and whether it's enforceable.
2517810	2520950	And the biggest issue in enforceability of the GPL
2520950	2523350	is not any of the legal language,
2523350	2524770	or at least this author says,
2524770	2527270	it's not any of the legal language of the GPL.
2527270	2529270	It's the fact that users don't know
2529270	2531430	that it's covered under the GPL.
2531730	2534170	Coders will just throw the license in some subdirectory
2534170	2536610	called license.txt and not ever tell anybody
2536610	2537990	that it's covered by the GPL.
2537990	2539690	And that's a really huge problem.
2540350	2542110	But this article goes through
2543450	2545950	10 commonly asked questions about the GPL,
2545950	2547410	10 threats to the GPL,
2547410	2550590	and in the end finds that the GPL will probably be enforced
2550590	2554430	by a court whenever the ultimate challenge to the GPL comes.
2554430	2555850	So it's a really great article.
2557190	2558250	All right, that's my bit.
2558250	2559690	And if you have any more questions,
2559690	2564170	I think we have 5-10 minutes for questions.
2565070	2567530	Preferably related to the Creative Commons licensing
2567530	2569650	and not to general copyright issues.
2570130	2571870	I may run out of knowledge.
2578010	2579990	The next talk after this is
2579990	2581790	the revolution will not be copyrighted.
2581790	2582670	Is that right?
2582770	2584670	And there's your speakers right there.
2586950	2589410	Any questions about the Creative Commons?
2614720	2617840	If they put it under the Creative Commons license originally?
2619960	2622280	Probably not because you're acting as the agent
2622280	2623760	of the copyright owner.
2623760	2625920	And they can always do whatever they want with it.
2626940	2629380	Like I said, the people who already downloaded their image
2629380	2630700	under the Creative Commons license
2631820	2634000	would still be allowed to use it.
2634080	2636800	But if the user of your service changes their minds,
2637720	2639460	I don't see a big problem
2639460	2641160	because you're only acting on their orders
2641160	2644480	and they still retain their full copyright control.
2656200	2658740	How does it compare to normal copyright protections?
2658740	2660020	How does it compare?
2662280	2664220	Why would you do Creative Commons
2664220	2666280	instead of normal copyright protection?
2667840	2670600	Every time someone wanted to use your content,
2670600	2672520	you'd have to specifically grant each user
2672840	2674120	a license to do so.
2674120	2675200	And you'd basically have to write up
2675200	2677600	your own agreement every time.
2677600	2679500	Or find another alternative license
2679500	2680860	to the Creative Commons.
2682480	2684040	Creative Commons is mostly
2684700	2687300	you put content on your website
2687300	2689360	you invite everybody to come use your content
2689360	2691320	for whatever purposes they like.
2691520	2693300	Under normal copyright law,
2693840	2695700	they can only use fair use,
2695700	2697380	which is a limited use.
2697380	2699700	This allows full reuse of your content.
2700620	2702380	Does that answer your question?
2702420	2703220	Sort of?
2718780	2721220	Are there any further questions?
2721360	2724000	If not, I will shuffle off stage left.
2725420	2727020	Alright, thank you everybody.
2728800	2730300	And stay tuned for The Revolution
2730300	2731880	will not be copyrighted up next.