Further development of legal concept

[ClemensBeck]

• @ClemensBeck Further development of legal concept especially solving the question of Platform liability with lega departement of university Jena

[ClemensBeck]

Feedback from legal departement. The questions are answered as follows:

If you use the described data and metadata under the applicable Creative Commons (CC) licenses, respecting their restrictions, it is unproblematic.

The issue arises if datasets, supposedly licensed under CC, actually infringe third-party rights — meaning someone uploaded and licensed content without being the rightful owner. The problem concerns the "apparent" or unauthorized granting of CC licenses when it is unclear if the uploader had the authority to do so.

Key points:

CC licenses are valid only if authorized:
Only a rights holder or an authorized party can grant a CC license. If someone uploads and licenses content without proper rights, the license is invalid, and using, editing, or publishing such content could infringe the true rights holder's copyright.

Legal consequences for users – good faith does not protect:
Copyright law does not recognize protection for users acting in good faith. Even if a visible CC license was relied upon, the user can still be held liable to the actual rights holder. Potential consequences include cease-and-desist claims and possibly claims for damages or profit disgorgement. However, courts have sometimes ruled that the "objective value" of non-commercial CC-licensed use is zero, meaning no actual damages.

Liability of platform operators:
If the dataset comes from a platform, the original uploader is primarily liable if they wrongfully set the license. However, users can still be pursued directly by the rights holder. Platforms generally do not offer indemnity to users.