National authors already have Creative Commons Licenses at their disposal, which, as of today, are available in Portugal. The rules guarantee the protection of copyright, are free of charge and allow to define the conditions for sharing the work. However, they are not totally permissive since they are between the rights of those who create and the demand of those who consume.
Authors can define the conditions under which their work is shared with third parties by choosing the level of flexibility with regard to the distribution of the work.
These rules are divided into several categories with the «by» license being the most permissive, allowing the user to sell or create derivative works from the original. The «by-nc» license allows for wide use of the work but without any associated commercial purposes.
Authors who opt for «by-sa» licenses intend that works derived from theirs be «licensed under the same terms» as the original work. The choice of the «by-nd» license allows the redistribution of the work, whether commercial or non-commercial, as long as it is not altered.
In turn, the «by-nc-sa» license does not allow commercial use of the work and requires that the works derived from it be licensed under the same terms, while «by-nc-nd» is characterized by being the most common norm restrictive, since it only allows the redistribution of the work and does not allow commercial use or copying.
Companies like Microsoft, MIT and bands like Pearl Jam have already joined this type of licensing that now arrives in Portugal through the hands of the Knowledge Society Agency, Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and INTELI – Innovation Intelligence.
Related News:
2006-09-12 – Portuguese version of Creative Commons licenses arrives in Portugal in November
