Creative Commons is not a Free-for-All

In an Israeli court case this month, Avi Re’uveni v. Mapa inc., the user of Creative Commons (CC) licensed photographs was found to have infringed copyright by creating and selling collages using those images without complying with the CC BY-NC-ND licence's conditions.  In this instance, no attribution was given, this use was commercial, and was a derivative work.  Further and higher education institutions should ensure their staff understand that whilst CC licences provide useful, relatively liberal permissions, they do not represent a free-for-all, and non-compliance with the licence conditions will make reuse unlawful (with consequent risk and uncertainty). For more information, visit the summary of the decision at http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/26115.

Posted on 24/01/2011

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