Dangers of Over-Enthusiasm in Licensing under Creative Commons
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://mujlt.law.muni.cz/index.php |
| Field | Law sciences |
| Keywords | Creative commons copyright license copyright infringement internet |
| Description | In this paper we assess the Creative Commons licensing scheme that offers a simple, user-friendly tool to allow anyone to distribute or build upon others' work without the necessity of drafting legal documents. Even a person without any legal education or knowledge of law can use the Creative Commons website to license her work under a professionally drafted license contract. We argue that this user-friendliness has its risks and pitfalls. The licensing procedure itself is perhaps too easy and may create an illusion that nothing can go wrong. But licensing is not as simple as it may appear from the first visit of Creative Commons' website. The most frequent mistake a user can make when using a license under the Creative Commons is to license a work for which he has no legal title. Surprisingly to many users, even the author of the work does not always have the right to license its work under the Creative Commons licensing scheme. |
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