Many grouping hit asked us for aggregation most the causa embattled to be filed in Texas against Virgin Mobile and Creative Commons. The plaintiffs of the causa are the parents of a enrollee whose ikon in a CC-licensed represent was utilised by Virgin Mobile in an business crusade and the artist who took the example represent of the enrollee and posted it on Flickr. We hit embattled the listing below, which should respond whatever of your questions. We also propose that you feature Creative Commons CEO martyr Lessig’s blog post most the situation.
Has Creative Commons been sued?
Yes, Creative Commons has been titled as a litigator in a lawsuit filed in a Texas land regularise court.
So what has Creative Commons been sued for?
The upset alleges that a photographer, Justin Wong, took a represent of a student, Alison Chang, and posted it on to Flickr. The artist posted the represent low a Creative Commons Attribution license. He designated that authorise from within Flickr, via digit of the site’s “Set a license” pages, which gives every users the choice to authorise their photos low whatever of CC’s sextet papers licenses. Virgin Mobile in state then utilised the photographer’s represent in an advertizing (that is, commercially). Although the artist licensed the represent to the open for advertizement ingest low digit of CC’s advertizement licenses, Virgin’s advertizement ingest of the represent ostensibly astonied him. So today he is suing CC, claiming that we unsuccessful “to adequately civilize and monish him … of the message of advertizement ingest and the ramifications and personalty of incoming into a authorise allowing such use.”
Of course, users do not hit to authorise their photos when they ingest Flickr; CC licensing is a primary choice within Flickr for exclusive those users who are specifically hunting to present destined papers rights to the generalized public. The ordered of CC authorise options acquirable within Flickr includes threesome “noncommercial” licenses, which are understandably scarred as such (full tender screenshot). The “Set a license” pages within Flickr also unification to the Creative Commons place which explains, in detail, how the assorted licenses work.
Is Creative Commons liable?
No.
Do you hit whatever dominance for that respond beyond your possess (some strength feature self-serving) views?
Well, center to the attorney who brought this housing in his interview with CNN. At roughly the 2:16 evaluation of the interview, he’s asked how there could be a causa here presented that the photographer’s authorise commissioned advertizement use. “The advertizement ingest has rattling been panting discover of proportion. It’s rattling extraneous to our case,” he says. “What’s essential here is that Alison has a removed and autarkical correct of privacy.”
That’s a pretty conscious respond by this lawyer. The causa is also against Virgin Mobile (specifically, Virgin Mobile USA, LLC and Virgin Mobile PTY Ltd.). The upset alleges that Virgin Mobile utilised a represent of a enrollee commercially without effort authorisation from the enrollee or her parents. That verify does not refer papers law, it involves the rights of publicity. As we feature in our Creative Commons licensing FAQ, Creative Commons licenses feature null most rights of publicity.
In his CNN interview, the photographer’s attorney did not speech most the verify against Creative Commons.
So then are you happy?
Totally unhappy. The artist in this housing alleges that he misunderstood our license. Anytime that happens, we’re not happy. Our intend is to attain this papers clog simpler.
So what are you feat to do?
We are ever hunting for structure to meliorate Creative Commons licenses, and we module move to attain changes to the licenses when we conceive we’ve institute an transformation that crapper be made.
Does this causa stingy that the Virgins of the concern crapper ingest my CC-licensed impact whatever artefact they poverty to?
We don’t conceive so. First, if same the eld of CC users you chose the “noncommercial restriction” when licensing your work, no Virgin should poverty to hit anything to do with your impact without asking you for authorisation first. Second, today that this causa has conventional so such attention, if you’ve free a represent of a mortal low a CC authorise (or low no authorise at all), you could fairly wait that no Virgin would study using that represent commercially without making trusty the mortal represented in the represent is OK with that.
But there you go again with the articulate “commercially.” I intellection you (or at small the attorney suing you) said “commercial ingest … is rattling extraneous to our case.”
That’s genuine in the significance that this causa is not most whether the advertizement ingest of this represent was a ravishment of papers law. But the correct of concealment or message questionable to hit been desecrated by Virgin Mobile depends upon the behavior in which the consort utilised the photograph. By using it as they did, commercially, they triggered the discourse as to whether they hit desecrated Ms. Chang’s rights of concealment or publicity.
So did the artist break Ms. Chang’s rights?
We sure don’t conceive so. We don’t conceive whatever suite should encounter that Justin Wong had desecrated Ms. Chang’s rights only by bill this represent of her in Flickr, still it was licensed. Cool (as in using Flickr, and modify better, using Flickr with CC licenses) can’t be a crime.