3 ms·

Licensing something as free and then going around and making backroom deals with platform holders so it cannot freely be used is misleading and unethical. If I

Licensing something as free and then going around and making backroom deals with platform holders so it cannot freely be used is misleading and unethical. If I use CC-BY music in a game I make, I don't want to discover after the fact that you will insert ads in my YouTube trailer.

languagewars 10y ago
I don't entirely get the OP, if it is CC-BY then I think you could add ads to your trailer and collect money on his music. Perhaps he chose the wrong license.. If it is CC-BY-NC then he should be able to prevent you from adding ads in combination with his music (though youtube can't settle whether the larger point of the video is commercial), but he doesn't have any rights to add ads nor should youtube act as a music agent to broker deals with video producers as he asserts at the end.
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > If it is CC-BY-NC then he should be able to prevent you from adding ads in combination with his music I would recommend anybody not to license in a CC license that includes "NC" as long it is not clearly defined what you mean by "commercial". - Is using the music in a private YouTube video commercial (probably not)? - Is using the music in a private YouTube video that, say, some 3D-Designer rendered for a classroom project commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer rendered for a classroom project but with the potential of showing his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer rendered for some funny private side project with the potential of showing his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer released for free to show his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is enabling ads on such YouTube videos commercial? What if you enable ads because you had costs? - Is using the music in an advertising video that is distributed only freely commercial (rather yes)? - Is using the music in a commercial film commercial (clearly yes)? If you say something is commercial if you get paid for it, what other types of compensation makes it commercial/non-commercial: YouTube clicks, Facebook likes, Bitcoins (when they had no value), attention for other (advertized) videos in your YouTube channel, awareness among potential employers?
  - languagewars 10y ago
    These are all reasons not to republish -NC- material, they are no more convincing reasons not to use it to license as the arguments against GPL3. Maybe you have less uptake from people in the grey areas and less spread through for profit use. Looking at OSS today, maybe that is what you want.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      Disagree. There are philosophical and practical reasons to argue against copyleft licenses in favor of more permissive licenses. [ADDED: or vice versa.] But there's not a lot of debate about what copyleft means (outside of some corner cases relating to linking and interfaces). The issue with NC isn't so much around the fact that it prohibits commercial use--though in the views of some that makes it a non-free license and therefore something to avoid for that reason alone--but that defining what constitutes commercial use in the general case is essentially impossible and very much in the eyes of the beholder.
      - languagewars 10y ago
        GPL2's single work issue may be a better example of ambiguosness, but dual licensing w/GPL3 is complex enough to collect from commercial licensees. Enterprises often buy the paid license because it is too hard for them to evaluate whether they will manage compliance over time. Such a method seems quite typical to protect ones work while sharing it with end users and seems to be what the OP expected from using CC. I don't like the state of NC, but the point of copyleft is harvesting the irony that licensors get to state the terms and aren't particularly penalized for much of anything they do wrong (their unenforceable clauses are simply ignored). So why not take NC if you want CC with a commercial chilling effect? You don't have to sue anyone, yet that chill is still there. A resolution in one US court wont even change that chill much.
    - wolfgke 10y ago
      > they are no more convincing reasons not to use it to license as the arguments against GPL3. The GPLv3 defines rather exactly what is allowed and what is not. That's what a license is for: defining exactly what is allowed and what isn't (which does not contradict that there are purposes for which the GPLv3 is suitable and ones for which it is not). NC for Non-Commercial in Creative Commons on the other hand is some wishy-washy term that does not clearly define where the boundary between commercial and non-commercial is.

languagewars 10y ago

I don't entirely get the OP, if it is CC-BY then I think you could add ads to your trailer and collect money on his music. Perhaps he chose the wrong license.. If it is CC-BY-NC then he should be able to prevent you from adding ads in combination with his music (though youtube can't settle whether the larger point of the video is commercial), but he doesn't have any rights to add ads nor should youtube act as a music agent to broker deals with video producers as he asserts at the end.

wolfgke 10y ago
> If it is CC-BY-NC then he should be able to prevent you from adding ads in combination with his music I would recommend anybody not to license in a CC license that includes "NC" as long it is not clearly defined what you mean by "commercial". - Is using the music in a private YouTube video commercial (probably not)? - Is using the music in a private YouTube video that, say, some 3D-Designer rendered for a classroom project commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer rendered for a classroom project but with the potential of showing his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer rendered for some funny private side project with the potential of showing his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is using the music in a YouTube video that some 3D-Designer released for free to show his skills to potential employers commercial? - Is enabling ads on such YouTube videos commercial? What if you enable ads because you had costs? - Is using the music in an advertising video that is distributed only freely commercial (rather yes)? - Is using the music in a commercial film commercial (clearly yes)? If you say something is commercial if you get paid for it, what other types of compensation makes it commercial/non-commercial: YouTube clicks, Facebook likes, Bitcoins (when they had no value), attention for other (advertized) videos in your YouTube channel, awareness among potential employers?
- languagewars 10y ago
  These are all reasons not to republish -NC- material, they are no more convincing reasons not to use it to license as the arguments against GPL3. Maybe you have less uptake from people in the grey areas and less spread through for profit use. Looking at OSS today, maybe that is what you want.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Disagree. There are philosophical and practical reasons to argue against copyleft licenses in favor of more permissive licenses. [ADDED: or vice versa.] But there's not a lot of debate about what copyleft means (outside of some corner cases relating to linking and interfaces). The issue with NC isn't so much around the fact that it prohibits commercial use--though in the views of some that makes it a non-free license and therefore something to avoid for that reason alone--but that defining what constitutes commercial use in the general case is essentially impossible and very much in the eyes of the beholder.
    - languagewars 10y ago
      GPL2's single work issue may be a better example of ambiguosness, but dual licensing w/GPL3 is complex enough to collect from commercial licensees. Enterprises often buy the paid license because it is too hard for them to evaluate whether they will manage compliance over time. Such a method seems quite typical to protect ones work while sharing it with end users and seems to be what the OP expected from using CC. I don't like the state of NC, but the point of copyleft is harvesting the irony that licensors get to state the terms and aren't particularly penalized for much of anything they do wrong (their unenforceable clauses are simply ignored). So why not take NC if you want CC with a commercial chilling effect? You don't have to sue anyone, yet that chill is still there. A resolution in one US court wont even change that chill much.
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    > they are no more convincing reasons not to use it to license as the arguments against GPL3. The GPLv3 defines rather exactly what is allowed and what is not. That's what a license is for: defining exactly what is allowed and what isn't (which does not contradict that there are purposes for which the GPLv3 is suitable and ones for which it is not). NC for Non-Commercial in Creative Commons on the other hand is some wishy-washy term that does not clearly define where the boundary between commercial and non-commercial is.