[cc-devel] Querying All License and Versions

[Thomas, Alexander]

I am building a feature on a website that will allow users to specify a license with their work.
I need to be able to query all avaliable license info including Name, URI, Description and PNG image. This also needs to include older versions of the license.
I have looked at the javascript chooser (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Integration) and the rest api (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services).
However these appear to only return current versions of the license (3.0) and I don't see a way to query all the license in either tool. They both seems to be geared toward choosing options.

Any assistence in this matter would be of great help!

Thank you
Alex

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[Nathan Yergler]

Hi Alex,

I don't believe any of the APIs support what you're looking for. Your
best bet may be to grab the RDF files that CC uses to describe the
licenses, and use those for your information. Every license CC has
issued (including deprecated ones) will be in there, and you can get
the URI, name, and description from them. I'm not sure which PNG image
you're referring to, maybe the icon for the license? I can't recall if
that's in the RDF or not. I believe the license.rdf repository on
http://code.creativecommons.org/ has all of these files.

Hope that helps.

NRY

Post by Thomas, Alexander
I am building a feature on a website that will allow users to specify a
license with their work.
I need to be able to query all avaliable license info including Name, URI,
Description and PNG image. This also needs to include older versions of the
license.
I have looked at the javascript chooser
(http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Integration) and the rest api
(http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services).
However these appear to only return current versions of the license (3.0)
and I don't see a way to query all the license in either tool. They both
seems to be geared toward choosing options.
Any assistence in this matter would be of great help!
Thank you
Alex
________________________________
This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of
the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
information. If the reader of this message is not the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution
or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly
prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please contact
the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the
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[Mike Linksvayer]

Post by Thomas, Alexander
I am building a feature on a website that will allow users to specify a
license with their work.
I need to be able to query all avaliable license info including Name, URI,
Description and PNG image. This also needs to include older versions of the
license.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf

Another option is https://licensedb.org which also includes non-CC
licenses. It may not be entirely up to date with all CC license ports,
but accepts patches.

The following two don't meet your requirements, but for anyone finding
this with different requirements, http://licenses.opendefinition.org
or https://spdx.org/licenses/ might be interesting.

Mike

[Nathan Kinkade]

Hi Alex,

I'm curious if there a particular reason you would like to offer older
license versions? In addition to that, there are perhaps some valid
reasons to consider only offering the "Unported," or international,
licenses:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#Should_I_choose_an_international_license_or_a_ported_license.3F

Greetings from an Emory alumni ('94 history).

Nathan

Post by Mike Linksvayer

Post by Thomas, Alexander
I am building a feature on a website that will allow users to specify a
license with their work.
I need to be able to query all avaliable license info including Name, URI,
Description and PNG image. This also needs to include older versions of the
license.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf
Another option is https://licensedb.org which also includes non-CC
licenses. It may not be entirely up to date with all CC license ports,
but accepts patches.
The following two don't meet your requirements, but for anyone finding
this with different requirements, http://licenses.opendefinition.org
or https://spdx.org/licenses/ might be interesting.
Mike
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[Thomas, Alexander]

Nathan,

Is This the RDF you are referring to
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf (link provided by Mike)?
If so I can sees how to get the URI and Name and image but don't see how
to get the Description.

-Alex

Post by Nathan Yergler
Hi Alex,
I don't believe any of the APIs support what you're looking for. Your
best bet may be to grab the RDF files that CC uses to describe the
licenses, and use those for your information. Every license CC has
issued (including deprecated ones) will be in there, and you can get
the URI, name, and description from them. I'm not sure which PNG image
you're referring to, maybe the icon for the license? I can't recall if
that's in the RDF or not. I believe the license.rdf repository on
http://code.creativecommons.org/ has all of these files.
Hope that helps.
NRY
On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Thomas, Alexander <athom09 at emory.edu>

Post by Thomas, Alexander
I am building a feature on a website that will allow users to specify a
license with their work.
I need to be able to query all avaliable license info including Name,
URI,
Description and PNG image. This also needs to include older versions
of the
license.
I have looked at the javascript chooser
(http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Integration) and the rest api
(http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Web_Services).
However these appear to only return current versions of the license
(3.0)
and I don't see a way to query all the license in either tool. They both
seems to be geared toward choosing options.
Any assistence in this matter would be of great help!
Thank you
Alex
________________________________
This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of
the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
information. If the reader of this message is not the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution
or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly
prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please contact
the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the
original message (including attachments).
_______________________________________________
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cc-devel at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel

[Mike Linksvayer]

Post by Thomas, Alexander
Nathan,
Is This the RDF you are referring to
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf (link provided by Mike)?

Probably. :)

Post by Thomas, Alexander
If so I can sees how to get the URI and Name and image but don't see how
to get the Description.

If you mean by "Description" a brief text like those at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/#licenses there is no
programmatic way; those are just translated in
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/CC with no lookup by license, but
maybe that is something that ought be done by a CC programmer (none
exist at this moment).

Probably the closest existing thing to a description useful for
programs other than the license name is the content found at a license
URI, ie, the deed. Another approach would be to construct your own
description by pretty-printing permits/requires/prohibits statements
you find.

Mike

[Maarten Zeinstra]

Hi Alex,

Yes that would be the RDF file.

Incidentally I abstracted all valid license URLs out of that file just the other day. I've included that file here. You might be surprised that that list contains 600 different licenses. This is because we have 3 major versions of our licenses ported to many different jurisdiction. There are also a lot of licenses that still exist but are not actively promoted anymore like earlier versions of a license and some other license constructions.

Also could you please tell us why you would need a list of all the licenses. If I would offer license options for a website or service I would just use the six unported 3.0 licenses:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

I would copy the explanation from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ and provide proper attribution (of course). Which makes your software far more maintainable.

Again we are happy to think with you on your project.

Cheers and good luck,

Maarten Zeinstra
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl | t [phone] | m [phone] | @mzeinstra

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Post by Mike Linksvayer

Post by Thomas, Alexander
Nathan,
Is This the RDF you are referring to
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf (link provided by Mike)?

Probably. :)

Post by Thomas, Alexander
If so I can sees how to get the URI and Name and image but don't see how
to get the Description.

If you mean by "Description" a brief text like those at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/#licenses there is no
programmatic way; those are just translated in
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/CC with no lookup by license, but
maybe that is something that ought be done by a CC programmer (none
exist at this moment).
Probably the closest existing thing to a description useful for
programs other than the license name is the content found at a license
URI, ie, the deed. Another approach would be to construct your own
description by pretty-printing permits/requires/prohibits statements
you find.
Mike
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[Nathan Yergler]

You can imagine that if you're building a service that allows people
to upload/archive existing works (as opposed to new works), you'd want
to capture the specific license the work was offered under, as opposed
to requiring license upgrade or limiting yourself to 3.0 Unported
works.

NRY

Post by Nathan Yergler
Hi Alex,
Yes that would be the RDF file.
Incidentally I abstracted all valid license URLs out of that file just the other day. I've included that file here. You might be surprised that that list contains 600 different licenses. This is because we have 3 major versions of our licenses ported to many different jurisdiction. There are also a lot of licenses that still exist but are not actively promoted anymore like earlier versions of a license and some other license constructions.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
I would copy the explanation from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ and provide proper attribution (of course). Which makes your software far more maintainable.
Again we are happy to think with you on your project.
Cheers and good luck,
Maarten Zeinstra
--

Post by Mike Linksvayer

Post by Thomas, Alexander
Nathan,
Is This the RDF you are referring to
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/index.rdf (link provided by Mike)?

Probably. :)

Post by Thomas, Alexander
If so I can sees how to get the URI and Name and image but don't see how
to get the Description.

If you mean by "Description" a brief text like those at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/#licenses there is no
programmatic way; those are just translated in
https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/CC with no lookup by license, but
maybe that is something that ought be done by a CC programmer (none
exist at this moment).
Probably the closest existing thing to a description useful for
programs other than the license name is the content found at a license
URI, ie, the deed. Another approach would be to construct your own
description by pretty-printing permits/requires/prohibits statements
you find.
Mike
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