Free for a Fee

Creative Commons, often known as CC, allows content creators to share their works with various licenses. The license at issue here is known as BY-NC-SA 4.0. Content under this license can be freely used by anybody for “noncommercial” purposes if the original source is credited. There are more than 1.1 billion works within the CC licensing umbrella, and 150 million licensed for noncommercial use.

However, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit educational stalwart called Great Minds (GM) tried to turn the CC noncommercial licensing scheme on its head. Great Minds develops K-12 curriculum for schools throughout the US and licenses its product under the CC noncommercial license. The nonprofit sued FedEx for profiting when school representatives used FedEx to duplicate the materials so they could be distributed in class. Great Minds demanded royalties from FedEx, which refused. Great Minds sued last year, claiming FedEx was infringing its content, which also enjoys US copyright protection.