creative-commons
Protecting against Creative Commons revisions
<p>I am looking to purchase digital assets for a project.</p>
<p>The assets are loosely described as CC on the page:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can use it for commercial purposes and make edits as much as you like. However cannot distribute. Credit isn't required.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have tried contacting the owner to clarify however have gotten no response.</p>
<p>Two questions came to mind:</p>
<p>1: <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/3888/can-an-artist-revoke-his-creative-commons-cc-content">Can an artist revoke his Creative Commons Content</a></p>
<ul>
<li>No they can't - Ok, fine</li>
</ul>
<p>2: How do you then prove that the paragraph on their website said what I quoted above at the time of purchase?</p>
<p>My honest solution would be to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Setup a video camera pointing at my monitor</p>
</li>
<li><p>Navigate to google and google &quot;todays date&quot;</p>
</li>
<li><p>Navigate and load up the asset website - scroll to paragraph.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>As silly as that sounds, I don't see another way.</p>
<p>Is the above solution valid?</p>

<p><strong>Q: How do you prove that the paragraph on their website said what I quoted above at the time of purchase?</strong></p>
<p><strong>A: With something that has a provable and verifiable date stamp.</strong></p>
<p>Although your video method is a viable solution, a simpler one to achieve the same objective would be to take a screenshot and save it in a way that preserves its metadata in case its veracity is ever questioned or contested in (for example) court.  If required, there are companies that can carry out digital-forensic examinations to the evidential standard to say if/when/how a file has been manipulated - and sometimes by who.</p>
<p>Another option is to use something like the <a href="https://archive.org/web/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Internet Archive</a>'s Wayback Machine to preserve the relevant web page (although not every site is included for various reasons given in the FAQ so you'll need to check).</p>
