[Open-access] CC-BY 2.0 compatible with download fees?

[Couture Marc]

Peter Murray-Rust wrote:

"It would be interesting to know whether the PDF carried the same licence. [...] It would be possible to use a different licence or simply claim complete rights on the PDF."

I don't think so.

According to CC-BY legal code, one could only claim copyright (and use it, for instance, to apply a new licence) on an adaptation of a CC BY work.

And, according to copyright law, to allow for a new, distinct copyright, the additions or transformations made to create the adapted work must be original. Criteria for originality differ between jurisdictions, but I don't see how a simple change of format from HTML to PDF could meet even the less stringent of them.

So, the PDF generated can certainly be sold, but it can't be re-licensed: it must bear the same CC BY license than the original HTML version.

Marc Couture