[okfn-discuss] Temporary CC license

Fri Apr 25 14:53:18 UTC 2014

John

This is really a question for Creative Commons since CC-BY-NC is not an Open
licence (the non-commercial is the issue).

However the short answer is that section 2(a)(1) of CC-BY-NC 4.0 grants an
irrevocable licence -

"Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor
hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable,
non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the
Licensed Material to:
reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for
NonCommercial purposes only; and
produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes
only." [1]

Thus as long the work was acquired while it was being offered under the
CC-BY-NC licence the licence cannot be revoked by the licensor.  The short
version also make that clear: "The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as
long as you follow the license terms."[2]

In addition it appears that *downstream recipients* also automatically get
the rights under CC-BY-NC *even if you distribute it to them after 18 June*
- see 2(a)(5)(A) of the legal code "Downstream recipients. Offer from the
Licensor - Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material
automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed
Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License."[1] 

It's entirely open to the copyright holder to stop granting *new* licences
after 18 June, but they cannot unilaterally take away CC licences already
granted to a licensee.

Regards

Andrew

[1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
[2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

-----Original Message-----
From: okfn-discuss [mailto:okfn-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of
John Levin
Sent: 25 April 2014 15:37
To: Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list
Subject: [okfn-discuss] Temporary CC license

Dear list,

I came across a curious academic publishing gambit I'd like to ask the list
about.

In short, two articles in Society and Space Volume 32 Number 2 have been
made open access.

The cc-by-nc button and the text 'Open Access" mark these 2 articles on the
journal issue page:
http://www.envplan.com/contents.cgi?journal=D&volume=32&issue=2

And the two articles are announced as open access until June 18th
http://societyandspace.com/2014/04/24/discussion-forum-on-henri-lefebvre-dis
solving-city-planetary-metamorphosis-paper-and-intro-open-access-and-four-on
line-commentaries/

However, the PDFs of the articles have (c) Pion and Licensors at the bottom.

In the comments on the announcement page, I asked what happens after June
18th. The reply was: "I think Pion will simply revert to the previous status
on that date."

Can this be done? Does this revoke previously granted rights? If I
republished the articles on a blog, would I be obliged to take them down on
June 18th?

Or - as I suspect - does a publisher not understand open access and CC
licenses?

John
--
John Levin
http://www.anterotesis.com
http://twitter.com/anterotesis

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