On 18 December 2013 12:07, Andrew A. Adams <a...@meiji.ac.jp> wrote: > > Graham, > > There is still disagreement as to the exact scope of CC-NC license. For > example, a University which uses material in a MOOC for which it does not > charge any fees isclearly NC. However, what about if they offer > certification > of completion for a fee (as some do). Does the profit/not-for-profit status > of the institution (or the platform) make a difference?
Yep, no question that there are times where it may be debatable whether an activity is non-commercial or commercial. However, two things to consider: 1) If it's a commercial use, you are presumably being paid for the product / service. At which point, you just consider the costs of purchasing rights to re-use as part of your overall costs in determining whether the venture is commercially viable and what price to set. 2) -NC simply means that you need to have explicit permission from the copyright holder. This could involve purchasing the rights, but equally, those rights could be granted at no cost, simply by asking. And that could mean asking the author, not the publisher. And let me be clear about this - my personal opinion is that publicly funded research should be made available as CC-BY, not CC-BY-NC - as is consistent with the BOAI definition of Open Access. But it's useful to have a rational discussion about the pros and cons of different licences, especially where it can reflect on efficient use of public funds. Oh in terms of profit / not-for-profit status - that explicitly makes no difference, according to the terms of CC-BY-NC license. What is considered is the use of the content, and whether that purpose is considered commercial. There is clear > precedent in tax law, for example, of treating some activities of > non-profit > organisations as commercial activity (though in the US for 501(c)(3) > organisations this is usually only applied to activities outside their core > purpose). And some commercial companies provide free licences for their paid-for products to not-for-profits and charities. For example, Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/software/views/community-license-request G
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