Thursday, May 21, 2015

mBio: a good model for language explaining what's covered by noncommercial use

mBIO has excellent language on their website http://mbio.asm.org/site/misc/authors.xhtml
explaining what they mean to exclude and include by using a CC noncommercial license. This could be model for others so copied in full below. The first part is copied directly from the CC website, a good practice which avoid errors in interpretation that would be possible with paraphrasing.

ASM publishes mBio articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The author(s) retains copyright under this license. Others may adapt, reorganize, and build upon the published work for noncommercial purposes, as long as credit to the author and original article is given, and the new work, which includes the previously published content, is licensed under identical terms.
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike


Noncommercial reuse is defined as use that is not intended for or directed toward commercial advantage. This would include the following:

  • Content requested by an academic or educational institution
  • Content requested by a not-for-profit publisher if not for resale
  • Content requested for use by the government
  • Content requested for a thesis or coursepack
  • Author request to use his/her own material

Individuals seeking to obtain permission for commercial reuse of mBio journal content may do so through the Rightslink web-based permissions and commercial reprint system. To use Rightslink, on the mBio website search for the journal article containing the content which you would like to reuse and then click on the "Reprints and Permissions" link that appears on the journal table of contents or within the article content box.

Commercial reuse applies if the content being requested will be distributed for a fee or by an organization legally recognized as a commercial entity (demonstrated, for example, by payment of taxes, incorporation, or support by advertising/corporate sponsorship). This includes:
  • Commercial/for-profit publishers
  • Companies or organizations representing or interfacing with a for-profit pharmaceutical organization (e.g., content to be reused to promote or advertise a pharmaceutical product)
  • Medical device companies
  • PR/Advertising/Medical communications agency/Media 

This post is part of the Creative Commons and Open Access critique series.