creative-commons
What does &quot;No additional restrictions&quot; of the CC-BY license mean when selling a product
<p>I'm struggling with this part of the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="nofollow">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>No additional restrictions</strong> — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. </p>
</blockquote>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p>A storyteller (Mr. S) is recording his own narratives / stories. He adds sound effects (like footsteps, wind, rain) to the recorded audio files. These sound effects are licensed under the CC BY license. The original sound effects are modified by Mr. S to fit to his recording.</p>

<p>Mr. S has a website where registered, <strong>paying</strong> users can listen online to his stories. So he is selling the access to the audio stream of his stories - <em>he gives all the required attribution of the CC BY license to the creators of the sound effects</em>.</p>

<p>But, his own legal terms do <strong>not</strong> grant any rights to the listeners (the paying users) to share or sell his audio files, nor adopt or remix them or use in any other way exept to listen to them.</p>

<p><strong>Is that allowed by the CC BY license?</strong></p>

<p>I think it is, but what does the quoted part of the license mean?</p>

<p>All I found in the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/faq/#can-i-use-effective-technological-measures-such-as-drm-when-i-share-cc-licensed-material" rel="nofollow">FAQ</a>'s about that part is about <em>sharing</em> a CC licensed work. But in Mr. S's case he is not sharing, but selling his own work (which uses modified parts of CC BY licensed work).</p>

<p>A Creative Commons license (<em>CC BY 4.0</em> in your case) only becomes relevant when you <em>share</em> the work. In your case, you <em>do</em> share the work: with registered users that paid for it. </p>

<p>The <em>No additional restrictions</em> term applies to recipients of the work: only the users that already received the work are relevant here. </p>

<p>You may restrict who becomes a recipient of the work, but you may not restrict a recipient from doing what the license would permit.</p>

<hr>

<p>See also the FAQ <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions#Application_of_effective_technological_measures_by_users_of_CC-licensed_works_prohibited" rel="nofollow"><em>Application of effective technological measures by users of CC-licensed works prohibited</em></a>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>But, his own legal terms do not grant any rights to the listeners (the paying users) to share or sell his audio files, nor adopt or remix them or use in any other way exept to listen to them.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The CC-BY terms apply to the sound effects.  Mr. S cannot apply any measures, be they legal (license restrictions) or technical (digital-rights management) that would prevent his listeners from extracting those sound effects and using them under the CC-BY license.  The other parts of the audio files are still protected under his chosen license terms.</p>
