Understanding what a copy is

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mmm I see the problem -- a tough one to explain clearly (hence all the legal debates on what constitutes a derivative work.

A digital copy is a "verbatim" copy and prohibited under copyright law (because its a copy :-)

So legally we must keep the sentence ""Under general copyright law, format shifting from one medium to another is considered a copy."

So I suggest deleting "and therefore a derivative work." from the original sentence.

Should we add an example of format shifting after this sentence:

"For instance, if you have a digital image in jpeg format, converting the same image to another format, for example, the gif file format, that would be a copy and not permitted under general copyright law.

Mackiwg (talk)16:11, 19 January 2011

I think I'm starting to understand what this paragraph is about. I don't think I got it before. I made a few changes, incorporating your suggestions as well as other wording, to improve the explanation. See what you think.

Actually, now that I "think" I understand it, this seems to be a big point--the idea that CC allows copies, to some extent for all of the licenses even when the license includes ND.

Alison

ASnieckus (talk)14:19, 20 January 2011

Hi Alison,

Yip -- that's the point. CC licenses permit format shifting (which is not allowed under standard copyright.)

Glad you picked this up -- I suspect other readers may have been confused with the original wording. Much better now.

Mackiwg (talk)09:42, 24 January 2011