Heather Morrison asks four questions about the CC-BY license
> > 1. Am I missing something in the legal code, i.e. does it say somewhere that this > license is only for open access works? > No, but it makes any work to which it is attached de facto OA. > > 2. Is there any reason why a publisher could not use a CC-BY license on toll-access > works? (Here I am talking about an original publisher, not a licensee). > There is no other reason that it would be completely pointless. Once a work is labelled CC-BY, anyone can post it on a freely available website. So, theoretically, as Arthur Smith points out, such a publisher could sell one copy (or collect one pay-per-view fee) before the work is made freely available. But even then, the author, or anybody who has a copy of the manuscript, or of the work itself, can also put it on a website. The only thing that could make sense, and this was discussed here in regard to service providers that asked a fee to access works which had been made freely available (with a CC-BY license) by the original publisher. > > 3. Is there anything to stop a publisher that uses CC-BY from changing their license > at a later point in time? (Assuming the license is the publisher's, not the author's). > > 4. Is there anything to stop a toll-access publisher from purchasing an open access > publisher that uses CC-BY, and subsequently selling all the formerly open access > journals under a toll-access model and dropping the open access versions? The license > would not permit a third party to do this, but what I am asking about is if the original > licensor sells to another publisher. > As stated in the legal code, the CC licenses are perpetual, which means as far as I can understand that they can't be modified or rescinded. But consider the hypothetical case of a dishonest publisher which would try to sell works that were previously freely available under a CC-license. First, he has to hide the license, which would constitute a serious misrepresentation (I'm no lawyer, but I suspect it's illegal). Second, as anybody can put on a freely available website a CC-licensed work, chances are that multiple copies of the works have already been made freely available. But such things could happen, and maybe some works would not be OA anymore. That makes me wonder if one shouldn't self-archive even when the work is published under a CC license. Personally, that’s what I do. Marc Couture
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