Creative commons license and copyright

[jmccann]

Hello,

I have been thinking about submitting a dungeon for the One-Page Dungeon Contest which requires submissions to be licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).

My question for those who are familiar with this license is: what is the impact of releasing under this license for subsequent works by me which expand on the original? The reason for my concern is that although I have no problem releasing my contest submission, I want to retain rights to subsequent works which expand upon the original submission. I am thinking that there is a kind of gray area that could result from releasing under this license - someone might expand on the original work in a way that is similar to the underlying campaign which could ambiguously appear to be a possible violation of my rights but which could be (claimed or actually) permitted under the "share" aspect of the license. I suppose this is something that I will just have to live with if I do release something under this license, but I would like to hear from those who have used this license (either as an original author or an author of derivative works), and also find out if anyone knows of any legal cases involving this license.

And I realize that what I get on a forum on the Intertubez is not legal advice, but I am sure there are those here who have researched these issues already and have thought about these issues.

[talysman]

I've used the CC license, but can't really say I've been in such a situation, so I can't tell you everything you need to know. However: A license is something the copyright owner adds to a work to define the rights of others. It does not limit what the owner can do in the future. But, in the case of a share-alike license, if you plan on expanding the dungeon in a fairly obvious way, you do essentially have a "race condition" where someone could do the obvious first. As for the impact: in a sense, you "retain" control of derivatives in that the derivative must also be released under an identical license, so you could incorporate someone else's expansion of your original dungeon into a future work... but then you would be required to use the same license for your expansion.

What you might want to do is drop them a line asking if you can use the Noncommercial version of the license. And, if the reason for the license requirement is because they plan on publishing all the one-page dungeons, you can offer to give the contest runners a special license to print your dungeon commercially, with alterations allowed but not expansions. If they will accept a separate license, you could even use a more restrictive No Derivatives license.

[Sean Michael Kelly]

I've been thinking of doing the same thing and appreciate the question and answers!

[talysman]

The reason why I decided to reply (as if I were some kind of expert, or something) was because I'd been wrestling with some similar issues for a while. I'm thinking of publishing some material with rules summarized in an appendix, and the appendix will be explicitly marked as CC BY-SA. Thus, I retain exclusive rights to setting material and specific text, but allow others to freely create related products as long as they credit me for relevant parts.

You might be able to arrange something like this with the one-page dungeon, putting some material in a text box and labeling the rest as CC BY-SA, but again, you should check whether the contest will accept that before going through all the effort.

[Alex Schroeder]

You remain the author and owner of your submission. Nobody can claim to have written your submission, nobody can prevent you from building on it, republishing it elsewhere, using whatever license you want, for money or for free.

What you cannot do, however, is revoke the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license—other people are free to build on your submission, republish it elsewhere, for money or for free. They cannot change the license, and they cannot remove your name from the work, but in all other respects, they are free to continue using your submission even if you have taken it elsewhere, changed it it, built upon it, etc.

Here’s an example: You are writing a megadungeon and submit a sublevel to the contest: the crypt of the vampire El Dente. Anybody else can make a copy of El Dente’s crypt and publish it, as long as they keep your name on it and as long as they are using the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. They might even sell it for a buck even if anybody who has it can make copies for free. At the same time, you can continue making changes to the crypt and incorporate it into your megadungeon. Maybe you added Arrian the Heretic to the crypt. Arrian wasn’t in the original submission and therefore he’s not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. Nobody else may take Arrian and copy him. Nor can they copy, change or distribute your megadungeon unless you give them license to do it. All they have to work with is your original submission.

In the end, you’re free to do with your submission whatever you want. Others are free to do almost anything with your submission, except for removing your name (“Attribution”) or changing the license (“Share Alike”). All can build upon it, expand it into a megadungeon, and sell it for money. But only you will be able to use a different license.

[Alex Schroeder]

Apr 9, 2012 22:40:24 GMT -6 talysman said:

What you might want to do is drop them a line asking if you can use the Noncommercial version of the license. And, if the reason for the license requirement is because they plan on publishing all the one-page dungeons, you can offer to give the contest runners a special license to print your dungeon commercially, with alterations allowed but not expansions. If they will accept a separate license, you could even use a more restrictive No Derivatives license.

I think that at the moment, I would not allow any exceptions. The current system has prevented a few people from submitting, that is true. I guess the publishers of the deluxe edition in 2009 and the publishers of Fight On! magazine have asked all the authors for permission to republish, but I still like the idea that anybody has the freedom to do it without having to ask for permission. Many of the submissions have no contact information on them. How will third parties ever find them once I drop off the Internet and all the email addresses are lost? I'm also hoping that people are keeping backup copies of all the contest submissions somewhere. No permission is required. And you can plaster your website with ads and make a little money without having to ask for an exception.

[jmccann]

Thanks for the responses. It seems like the derivative works which could be created would not realistically be much of an issue for a later release by the rights-holder which expands on the licensed material.