Creative Commons In Action – Applying Non-Commercial And Derivative Work Provisions

As Creative Commons licenses are more widely used, questions are developing about how to use them, and how they apply in particular situations. This column addresses some of these emerging CC interpretations.

Can you take a Creative Commons photo and alter it, making a false or misleading final product?

This question was raised, for example, when a photo that my son, Paul Sableman, took in Puerto Rico, was photoshopped onto a fake Oval Office background, and used in a tweet that falsely claimed President Obama had installed a statute of himself in the White House.

If an author allows derivative works (adaptations) to be made, the Creative Commons license doesn't contain any prohibition against making false, misleading or deceptive images, so even deceptive and misleading works are presumably within the derivative-works license grant.