Re: Can CC BY 2.0 be upgraded to 3.0 ?

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Paul Tagliamonte <paultag@debian.org> writes:
> On Fri, Sep 13, 2013 at 01:28:19PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:

>> Er, I don't understand why you think this is significant.  The work
>> formed by taking the original and putting it under a different license
>> is trivially a derivative work.

> While it's not defined to my liking in the CC* set, it defines a
> derivative work as::

> | "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and
> | other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement,
> | dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound
> | recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form
> | in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a
> | work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a
> | Derivative Work for the purpose of this License. For the avoidance of
> | doubt, where the Work is a musical composition or sound recording, the
> | synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image
> | ("synching") will be considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of
> | this License.

> I'm not convinced a relicense is considered a work based upon the work.
> Just like a patch, I'd assume this to be a creative work / modification
> to the work.

Ah, I hadn't ever thought about it from that angle.  Basically, the
argument is that if there's no original creative addition, it can't be a
derivative work?  On first glance, 17 U.S.C. § 101 appears to support
that:

    A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting
    works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization,
    fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art
    reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a
    work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of
    editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
    which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a
    “derivative work”.

The definition does require that it be "an original work of authorship,"
which isn't true of trivial changes to the original.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>