wait: CC licenses expire after you die, right, so your work is just in the public domain? or do the stipulations of CC licenses persist after death? (if so, when do those expire? ever?)
this seems like it should be both obvious and an easy thing to nail down, but I'm having trouble finding any good discussion of the question... is there a #librarian here who could enlighten me?
no, I know that part of copyright, I'm just unclear about where CC licenses fit in the scheme of things
so you're saying that, as granting certain rights _under_ copyright, CC licenses persist after death, but may be modified by a copyright holder's descendants?
@mrgah That's a good question. Does copyright law take over where copyleft ends? I don't see any explicit mention of death in CC, so does the work become public domain 70 years after the author's death as with traditional copyright?
CC themselves do say that CC licenses are a way to grant permissions under copyright: "Our tools give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work."
from what @dredmorbius was saying, it sounds like the heirs to someone who's released something under a CC license can then change the license (and maybe even revoke the CC license for future copies)
that seems... weird
@mrgah @annika @dredmorbius As I understand it, once you release something under CC, it's /under CC/ and /even you/ cannot change it. That is, you cannot go "Hah-hah!" and suddenly declare all the users to be in violation. Neither can your heirs.
You /can/ release it under other licenses (so if someone offers to pay you millions of dollars you can grant them a license to make derivative works without including the copyleft).
And you /can/ create /new/ versions and derivative works YOURSELF
@dredmorbius @annika @mrgah without them being under copyleft.
So while CC-by-SA will remain in effect after you die, your estate could, unless you took measures to prevent it, release the work under a different license /as well/ or create non-Free derivatives.
I suspect there's some way you can constrain your estate, writing stipulations into a will or something. Or assigning your content to a foundation after you die.
out of curiosity, is this because of CC or SA?
@mrgah @dredmorbius @annika Neither. It's just sort of inherent in the logic of a license being a grant of permissions. CC-By-SA (or the GPL or CC-by-SD or the license Internet Explorer comes over) are a general grant of permissions to anyone. The copyright owner can grant more/different permissions to other people at their option. And since they own the work they already have /all/ the permissions.
@annika @dredmorbius @mrgah If I've granted and unlimited, general permission I can't just take it away again, so even if I did relicense something, I would be creating a /different/ general permissions grant to everyone. The old one would still be around. It's only if I create a derivative of my own work and don't put it under the old license that I can have a version that doesn't have the /original/ grant. The original work still does. And I'm only able to do this because copyright law
@mrgah @dredmorbius @annika lets me derive my own work no matter what. So any copyleft on the original version just isn't relevant. (Since I'm not using it under /that/ set of permissions.)
@mrgah What the hell is a CC license? A credit card? concealed carry? I'm assuming it's some third thing which isn't clear from the context of your post.
oh, sorry-- creative commons
I posted that right before dinner, and it may have not been super clear
@mrgah That's the same thing as public domain right?
I have some thoughts on the concept of intellectual property: http://tailpuff.net/intellectual-property-is-garbage
@mrgah CC is a copyright with attached license, thus it operates under the rules of copyright in the country of automatic-registration. (I.e., since the mouse will never leave copyright, neither will anything under CC).
@mrgah Check the legalcode: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
Nothing about death mentioned. Dying won't affect your licensing under CC anything. However, you shoul be sure to use a free license before death, when it may be too late! :)
@mrgah Huh. I have no idea. Good question, though. Toot out what you find, won't you?
@mrgah @clhendricksbc I'm not a librarian, but my understanding is that the stipulations continue until such time as your work enters the public domain (in the copyright laws of wherever).
If you have warning about dying you could change everything to CC-0, or I guess put such changes in your will.
@artsyhonker @mrgah I’m not a librarian either but my sense is that since CC licenses are attached to copyright (one keeps copyright but provides a license that allows certain uses w/o asking direct permission) then the license continues as long as the copyright does. So I agree with artsyhonker here!
@mrgah *Copyright* is not extinguished on death.
The license propogates both with the original work transfer, /and/ with the work's heir.
I think you're confusing the right to change the terms under which a copyright holder may issue *future* copies (this can change at any time, and is a right inherited by successors), and the terms of *previous* distributions (which generally cannot, see Estoppel and various related constructs).