united-states copyright licensing creative-commons
Can you license an original response to a copyrighted work?
<p>Recently I've had a dispute with a colleague of mine, about a certain legal situation pertaining to licensing.</p>
<p>Let me try to explain:</p>
<p>Person A has a quiz that they created, with only a pen and piece of paper.</p>
<p>Person B responds to said quiz, and only records THEIR answers to said quiz.</p>
<p>Person B decides to license said response under CC-BY-SA 4.0.</p>
<p>Is this legally possible under Massachusetts law? And is this transformative?</p>

<h2>Sure</h2>
<p>If the answers are substantial enough to constitute an original literary work - short answers or essays for example.</p>
<p>If they are single word or short phrase answers then they are merely the recitation of (possibly incorrect) facts and do not qualify for copyright - you can't licence something you don't own the copyright to.</p>
