How does a Creative Commons Share-Alike license on an image affect a web design that image is used in?
April 7, 2011 5:12 AM Subscribe
I have used a photo that is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license as a background image in a WordPress theme. How much of the theme needs to be shared-alike?
The photo was used in the following way:
I can imagine arguments for both extremes, and I'm guessing that this is not clear-cut under the law, but similar situations must have come up before.
(As an additional wrinkle, if it makes any difference: the PHP parts of the WordPress theme need to be licensed under the GPL in order to comply with the GPL license that WordPress itself is licensed under.)
The photo was used in the following way:
- A modified version of the photo was created (the modified version tiles better than the original).
- The modified photo was included in a web page design (by referencing it as a background image using CSS).
- The web page design was used as the basis for a WordPress theme.
I can imagine arguments for both extremes, and I'm guessing that this is not clear-cut under the law, but similar situations must have come up before.
(As an additional wrinkle, if it makes any difference: the PHP parts of the WordPress theme need to be licensed under the GPL in order to comply with the GPL license that WordPress itself is licensed under.)
If it were me, I'd go to the original image creator and ask for a GPL license or get a different license. They are able to relicense under any license they want (if they have the desired to)
posted by bottlebrushtree at 11:44 AM on April 7, 2011
posted by bottlebrushtree at 11:44 AM on April 7, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for the input, everyone (and apologies for taking so long to get back on this question). We will indeed be getting in touch with the photo's creator to check that they're happy with our use, but it was good to get some specific references on this aspect of the CC-SA license.
posted by chrismear at 5:45 AM on April 19, 2011
posted by chrismear at 5:45 AM on April 19, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by babbageboole at 5:36 AM on April 7, 2011 [1 favorite]