Page:Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians.pdf/69

- 56 - CHAPTER 3 Those judicial decisions have been in a variety of places around the world, including Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and the United States. Creative Commons maintains a listing of court decisions and case law from jurisdictions around the world on its wiki, licensed CC BY 4.0, available at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Case_Law.

In all of these decisions, no court has questioned the validity of a CC license in the case. While a CC license played a minor role in some of the cases, in others the court has held the defendant liable for copyright infringement for failing to follow the CC license terms. You can read about one such decision at the CC wiki page Curry v. Audax, licensed CC BY 4.0 and available at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Curry_v._Audax.

Legal enforceability is one of the key features of CC licensing. While the licenses are widely seen as symbols of free and open sharing, they also carry legal weight. The CC legal code was written by lawyers with the help of a global network of international copyright experts. The result is a set of terms and conditions that are intended to operate and be enforceable everywhere in the world.

As noted above, there are different versions of CC licenses. These are not to be confused with the different types of licenses described in. The license version number simply represents when that particular version of the CC legal code was written. Creative Commons improves its licenses through the process of versioning, by which we update the legal code to better account for changes in copyright law and technology, and the needs of reusers. While there are some differences between license versions, the different versions are largely the same in practical effect. The latest version of the CC license suite is Version 4.0, which was published in 2013. Details on what updates were made to the licenses in Version 4.0 can be found at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-considerations/version4. For the most definitive and com­prehensive view of how the licenses have changed from Version 1.0 to the present, including all changes to the attribution and marking requirements, visit the CC wiki page, licensed CC BY 4.0, available at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions.

In all cases, we recommend that creators use the latest version of the licenses, because it reflects the latest thinking of Creative Commons and its global network of legal experts.