John This is really a question for Creative Commons since CC-BY-NC is not an Open licence (the non-commercial is the issue).
However the short answer is that section 2(a)(1) of CC-BY-NC 4.0 grants an irrevocable licence - "Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to: reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part, for NonCommercial purposes only; and produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material for NonCommercial purposes only." [1] Thus as long the work was acquired while it was being offered under the CC-BY-NC licence the licence cannot be revoked by the licensor. The short version also make that clear: "The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms."[2] In addition it appears that *downstream recipients* also automatically get the rights under CC-BY-NC *even if you distribute it to them after 18 June* - see 2(a)(5)(A) of the legal code "Downstream recipients. Offer from the Licensor - Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License."[1] It's entirely open to the copyright holder to stop granting *new* licences after 18 June, but they cannot unilaterally take away CC licences already granted to a licensee. Regards Andrew [1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode [2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ -----Original Message----- From: okfn-discuss [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Levin Sent: 25 April 2014 15:37 To: Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list Subject: [okfn-discuss] Temporary CC license Dear list, I came across a curious academic publishing gambit I'd like to ask the list about. In short, two articles in Society and Space Volume 32 Number 2 have been made open access. The cc-by-nc button and the text 'Open Access" mark these 2 articles on the journal issue page: http://www.envplan.com/contents.cgi?journal=D&volume=32&issue=2 And the two articles are announced as open access until June 18th http://societyandspace.com/2014/04/24/discussion-forum-on-henri-lefebvre-dis solving-city-planetary-metamorphosis-paper-and-intro-open-access-and-four-on line-commentaries/ However, the PDFs of the articles have (c) Pion and Licensors at the bottom. In the comments on the announcement page, I asked what happens after June 18th. The reply was: "I think Pion will simply revert to the previous status on that date." Can this be done? Does this revoke previously granted rights? If I republished the articles on a blog, would I be obliged to take them down on June 18th? Or - as I suspect - does a publisher not understand open access and CC licenses? John -- John Levin http://www.anterotesis.com http://twitter.com/anterotesis _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss
