Re: [License-discuss] MakeHuman, CC0 and AGPL
Thank you for your quick response! Can you clarify whether you can you put a copy of a work in the public domain while maintaining a license on another copy? Or is it the work itself that is placed in the public domain, and any ability to enforce copyright on any copies has been surrendered? My understanding was that works are placed in the public domain while copies are licensed, and that placing a work in the public domain renounces any copyright claim you might have on any copies regardless of what license they may have been previously released under. You seem to be saying that a particular copy of a work can be placed in the public domain while other copies remain under copyright restrictions? With regard to bundled exports, it would help me to look at a concrete case. Say we have an export from MakeHuman that consists of three files 1) A 3D mesh that was created starting with a 3D mesh that comes with MakeHuman and transformed by the user using MakeHuman. 2) A meta-data file containing information about the character and its appearance created by the user using MakeHuman 3) A texture in the form of an image file from the MakeHuman collection of texture images. Let's say the user chooses to take the CC0 option. What is the copyright status of the three files? Are all three files now in the public domain? Can the user, or a third party use the individual files without being restricted by the AGPL license that would apply if the CC0 option hadn't been taken? Or is it only the particular combination of the three that is in the public domain while the individual files are still under copyright? If it is only the combination that is in the public domain, does it revert to AGPL if you make any modifications? Thanks again. On 2017-10-25 11:04 AM, John Cowan wrote: On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 9:30 AM, Lindsay Patten <blindsaypat...@gmail.com <mailto:blindsaypat...@gmail.com>> wrote:. My understanding of CC0 is that it is a declaration that you have placed the work in the public domain, with a fallback license in case the law in a particular jurisdiction doesn't permit that. If the user takes the CC0 option, what is the status of the individual assets that are bundled into the export? Are they in the public domain or still copyrighted by the MakeHuman authors? Those particular copies are effectively in the public domain, provided that the MakeHuman folks actually hold copyright. Third party copyrights are of course unaffected. What I find confusing is whether CC0 is a license that can be applied to a particular copy of a work, Every license is applicable only to particular copies. The self-same bunch of bits may have a commercial license for one copy that permits certain acts and forbids others, and a GPL license on another copy which has completely different conditions from the commercial license. As long as the licensor is the owner, that's just fine. SImilarly, bits inside an executable that have been compiled from a BSD source are (at least arguably) under the GPL if other bits in the same executable come from GPLed source. -- John Cowan http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan <http://vrici.lojban.org/%7Ecowan> co...@ccil.org <mailto:co...@ccil.org> The whole of Gaul is quartered into three halves. --Julius Caesar ___ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss ___ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss
[License-discuss] MakeHuman, CC0 and AGPL
Hello, I'm hoping I can get a better understanding of the licenses associated with MakeHuman. MakeHuman is a program that allows you to generate 3D human characters, adjusting numerous parameters such as height, weight, gender, race, facial and body details, clothing, etc. etc. The program is licensed with the AGPL. It creates exports consisting of 3D meshes, material descriptions, and texture images. The exports are licensed AGPL as well, but if they are produced using an unmodified official version of the program the user is granted the option to apply CC0 instead. As a special and limited exception, the copyright holders of the MakeHuman assets grants the option to use CC0 1.0 Universal as published by the Creative Commons, either version 1.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version, as a license for the MakeHuman characters exported under the conditions that a) The assets were bundled in an export that was made using the file export functionality inside an OFFICIAL and UNMODIFIED version of MakeHuman and/or b) the asset solely consists of a 2D binary image in PNG, BMP or JPG format. My understanding of CC0 is that it is a declaration that you have placed the work in the public domain, with a fallback license in case the law in a particular jurisdiction doesn't permit that. If the user takes the CC0 option, what is the status of the individual assets that are bundled into the export? Are they in the public domain or still copyrighted by the MakeHuman authors? What I find confusing is whether CC0 is a license that can be applied to a particular copy of a work, or if using CC0 means the work itself, not just a particular copy of it, is placed in the public domain. I'm also unsure about licensing a bundle of assets. The complete license is at http://www.makehuman.org/license.php and there is an explanation of it at http://www.makehuman.org/license_explanation.php I am interested in understanding the implications of the current license, and also in knowing if there is a better way to license MakeHuman that prevents MakeHuman non-code assets from being used in closed source software, while still allowing unencumbered use of the exported character. I should say that the vast majority of MakeHuman users do not redistribute the exported character data, they use it to create images or video, which MakeHuman makes no claim on. The only time there are issues is if the generated character is used in a larger work, such as a game, 3D artwork, or VR experience. Thanks, Lindsay ___ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org https://lists.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss
