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Legal code issues & errata

Despite our best efforts, occasionally there are issues and/or errors in the published legal code for CC legal tools. CC is committed to maintaining static, canonical versions of its legal tools, so we do not make changes to the legal code after it is published. Therefore, when issues or errors are identified, they are documented on this page. Future versions of the legal tools are adjusted to remedy these. 

Pre-4.0 versions of the licenses: Creative Commons does not amend legal code once published in pre-4.0 versions of the CC license suite, including ports and their official translations. Errata in those versions are documented on this page.  

Version 4.0 license suite, CC0 1.0, and the PDM 1.0 in English: Creative Commons does not amend the legal code once published in the original English of the 4.0 licenses and CC0, or the text of the PDM 1.0. Issues and errata are documented on this page.

Official translations of the 4.0 licenses, CC0 1.0, and PDM 1.0: Official translations of these legal tools are intended as legal equivalents of the original English. Identified errors in these official translations may be corrected. All errors and any corrections made will be fully documented on this page. (Note that errors have not been corrected in the legal code unless this page specifies that a correction has been made.) 


Issues by legal tool

CC0 1.0

Non-inclusive pronouns. The two instances of “he or she” and the two instances of “his or her” should have been written using gender-neutral pronouns (“they” and “their”). This will be changed when we next version CC0, and will be encouraged in official translations, when possible.

Description. The Deed page of CC0 1.0 refers to using “the license”; CC0 should be described as a legal tool. (This is not part of the legal code but will not be corrected until the new website is launched.)

Public Domain Mark 1.0

Description. The Deed page of PDM 1.0 refers to using “the license”; PDM should be described as a legal tool. (This is not part of the legal code but will not be corrected until the new website is launched.)


Errors by legal tool

4.0 international license suite (English)

Validated HTML

As originally published, the HTML for the license files did not validate. This was corrected; however, those with older copies of this file will have the incorrect file.

Italics

On 2019 September 24, we discovered that Section 2a5 of the 4.0 licenses had become italicized through unknown means. It was investigated and reversed back to its original formatting on 2019 November 12.

4.0 international license suite (official translations)

Dutch official translation (corrected on 19 May 2021)

Section 1 corrected to translate”Effective Technological Measures” as “Doeltreffende Technologische Maatregelen” instead of “Doeltreffende Technische Maatregelen”; also corrected formatting in Section 3a

German official translation (corrected on 26 August 2020)

In Section 3a1B, corrected translation of “indicate if You modified” from “angeben, ob Sie das” to “angeben, falls Sie das” (see the German translation wiki page for more details)

Korean official translation (corrected on 29 April 2020)

CC BY:

  • In Section 2b3, added “In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties.”
  • In 4b, deleted “including for purposes of Section 3(b); and”

BY-SA:

  • In the title, corrected the license name to BY SA.
  • In Section 2a1B, changed “but not Share” to “and Share Adapted Material”
  • Inserted the Section 2a5B
  • In 2a5C, deleted “For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material.”
  • In 3a1, changed “If You Share the Licensed Material” to “If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form,” You must:”
  • In Section 4a, deleted “provided You do not Share Adapted Material;”
  • In Section 4b, added “including for purposes of Section 3(b); and”

BY-ND:

  • In Section 3a1C, moved “For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material” to its correct placement

BY-NC-ND:

  • In the title, added NC
  • In Section 3a1C, moved “For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material” to its correct placement
Polish official translation (corrected on 17 January 2023)

In BY-ND, the phrase for “licensed material” (“Utworu Licencjonowanego”) in section 2(a)(1)as changed to the phrase for “adapted material” (“Utworu Zależnego”) to correctly align with the original text.

Portuguese official translation (corrected on 8 September 2020)

In BY-SA, corrected the formatting of Section 1 so that the definition of Você also includes the explanation of the terms Lhe, Seu, Sua and Suas, rather than including those as a separate defined term.

Western Frisian offician translation (corrected on 13 Mar 2023)

In BY-NC, added missing section 6(c).


3.0 Unported (International) license suite

Section 1
  • Incorrect section reference.Section 1(b) of BY-SA cites Section 1(f); it should cite Section 1(h).
  • Incorrect word.Section 1(b) of BY-SA says that Adaptation is defined “below”; this should read “above”.
Section 3
  • Inconsistent language. In Section 3(d), BY-NC-SA uses “described” instead of “set forth”.
  • Section 8(f) reference incorrect; missing word. Section 3(b) in BY-NC-ND and Section 3c(iii) in BY-ND include a reference to Section 8(f); they should instead refer to Section 8(e). Additionally, BY-NC-ND omits the word “Section”, which should be present.
Section 4
  • Incorrect reference to “the Applicable License”.In section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the Applicable License” should instead be to “this License”: “You must keep intact all notices that refer to the Applicable License and to the disclaimer of warranties” should read “You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties”.
  • Missing “the”.In section 4(b) of BY-NC-SA, there is a sentence reading in part “must include a copy of, or the URI, for Applicable License with every copy”. This excerpt should instead read “must include a copy of, or the URI for, the Applicable License with every copy”.
  • Missing “the”.In Section 4(b) of BY-NC-ND, “if a credit for all contributing authors of Collection appears” should read “if a credit for all contributing authors of the Collection appears”.
  • Missing numerals and capitalization.In section 4(b) of BY-NC-SA, each condition should be numbered with uppercase roman numerals. Additionally, the beginning of item (IV) should be capitalized. (The passage should read: “(I) You must include a copy of[…]”; “(II) You may not offer[…]”; “(III) You must keep intact[…]”; “(IV) When You Distribute[…]”)
  • Numbering of list items.In Section 4(b) of BY-NC-SA, “only under: (i) the terms of this License” should instead read “only under the terms of: (i) this License”.
  • Capitalization.“Collection” should be lowercase both times in the last sentence of Section 4(b) in BY-SA; the excerpts should read “as incorporated in a collection” and “does not require the collection apart from the Adaptation itself”.
  • Comma placement.In Section 4(c) of BY-NC and 4(d) of BY-NC-SA licenses, a comma is incorrectly placed. The text reading “and, (iv) consistent with Section 3(b)” should instead read “and (iv), consistent with Section 3(b)”.
  • Extra hyphen.In Section 4(c) of BY-NC-SA, “con-nection” is an error, and should be written as “connection” instead.
  • Typographical error: “Ssection”.In Section 4(c), BY-SA contains the text “consistent with Ssection 3(b)”; “Ssection” should be “Section”.
  • Incorrect subsection reference.Section 4(d)(iii) of BY-NC references 4(c). It should reference 4(b).
  • Typographical error.In Section 4, BY, BY-NC, BY-SA, and BY-NC-SA refer to “a Adaptation”; this should be “an Adaptation”.
  • Extra bracket. Section 4(b)(iii) of BY-SA has an extra bracket at the end of a parenthetical.
Section 5
  • Omitted phrase. In BY, BY-SA, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-ND, the phrase “And to the Fullest Extent Permitted by Applicable Law,” should appear before “Licensor Offers the Work As-Is and Makes No Representations”.
  • Omitted word (“to”).In BY-NC-ND, “Unless Otherwise Mutually Agreed By the Parties” should read “Unless Otherwise Mutually Agreed To By the Parties”.
  • Spelling.“Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in BY, BY-NC, BY-SA, BY-ND, and BY-NC-ND.
  • Inconsistent language.BY-NC-SA includes the text “This Exclusion May Not Apply To You”; it should read “Such Exclusion May Not Apply To You”.
  • Typographical error. In all six licenses, Section 5 contains the text “OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS”. This should read “OR THE PRESENCE OF ERRORS”.
Notice
  • Incorrect word.In the last paragraph, “this trademark restriction does not form part of the License” should read “this trademark restriction does not form part of this License”.

3.0 jurisdiction ports

Australia
  • Incorrect header color.The heading for BY-NC-SA is green, and should be yellow.
Canada – English 
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.
Czech Republic
  • Typographical error.In all six licenses, the 2nd sentence of the final section (“Upozornění Creative Commons”), “Commos” should be “Commons”.
Ecuador
  • Incorrect header color.The headings for BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-ND are green, and should be yellow.
Germany
  • Incorrect word.In Section 8(e) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-NC-ND, the word “angeboteten” should be “angebotenen”.
Greece
  • Incorrect header color.The headings for BY and BY-SA are yellow, and should be green.
  • Incorrect example.In section 3(β) of BY-SA, the example given is “Attribution—NonCommercial—ShareAlike 3 U.S.”; it should be “Attribution—ShareAlike 3 U.S.”
  • Compatibility.In section 4(β), BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.

There are likely to be more errors in Section 4(β) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA; a Greek speaker is needed to report further errata.’

Guatemala
  • Incorrect header color.The headings for BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-ND are green, and should be yellow.
Hong Kong
  • Incorrect example.The example given in Section 4(b)  of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA “(e.g., Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Hong Kong)” should instead be any ported BY-SA license other than Hong Kong.
  • Incorrect reference to “the applicable license”.In section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the applicable license” should instead be to “this license”.
  • Missing numerals and capitalization.In section 4(b) of BY-NC-SA, each condition should be numbered with uppercase roman numerals. Additionally, the beginning of item (IV) should be capitalized. (The passage should read: “(I) You must include a copy of[…]”; “(II) You may not offer[…]”; “(III) You must keep intact[…]”; “(IV) When You Distribute[…]”)
IGO
  • Incorrect word in the original English (to be corrected in official translations).In all six licenses, the definition of “Publicly Perform”, the phrase “from a place and at a place” should read “from a place and at a time”.
Ireland
  • Incorrect reference to “the Applicable License”.In section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the Applicable License” should instead be to “this License”. “You must keep intact all notices that refer to the Applicable License and to the disclaimer of warranties” should read “You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties”.
Luxembourg
  • Incorrect header color.The headings for BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-ND are green, and should be yellow.
Netherlands
  • Spelling.In the last sentence of section 3 in all six licenses, the word “beschikt” is misspelled as “beschickt”.
New Zealand
  • Compatibility. In BY-SA, “Unported” omitted from “Creative Commons Compatible License” clause. In section 1, “a Creative CommonsUnportedlicense” should be listed.
Norway
  • Compatibility. In BY-SA, “Unported” omitted from “Creative Commons Compatible License” clause. In section 1(c), “a Creative CommonsUnportedlicense” should be listed.

There are likely to be more errors in Section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA; a Norwegian speaker is needed to report further errata.

Phillipines
  • Compatibility. In BY-SA, “Unported” omitted from “Creative Commons Compatible License” clause. In section 1(c), “a Creative Commons Unported license” should be listed.
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b), BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Incorrect reference to “the applicable license”.In section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the applicable license” should instead be to “this license”.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in BY-NC-ND, BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-SA, and BY.
Romania
  • Compatibility. In BY-SA, “Unported” omitted from “Creative Commons Compatible License” clause. In section 1(c), “a Creative CommonsUnportedlicense” should be listed.

There are likely to be more errors in Section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA; a Romanian speaker is needed to report further errata.

Singapore
  • Incorrect example. In BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, the examples given in Section 4(b) (“e.g., Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 SG” and “e.g., Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 SG”) should instead be any ported license with the same license elements other than Singapore.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in BY-NC-ND, BY-ND.
Spain
  • Missing jurisdiction flag.All six licenses are missing the Spanish flag image in the header.
Uganda
  • Incorrect reference to “the Applicable License”.In section 4(b) of By-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the Applicable License” should instead be to “this License”. “You must keep intact all notices that refer to the Applicable License and to the disclaimer of warranties” should read “You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties”.
United States
  • Typographical error.” Section 3(b) of BY includes two semicolons at the end of this section. Only one should be present.
  • Extra word.In Section 4(a) of BY-SA, “exercise of the rights granted” should read simply “exercise the rights granted”.
  • Incorrect reference to “the Applicable License”.In section 4(b) of BY-SA and BY-NC-SA, a reference to “the Applicable License” should instead be to “this License”. “You must keep intact all notices that refer to the Applicable License and to the disclaimer of warranties” should read “You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties”.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.

2.5 Generic license suite

  • Typographical error.Section 5 in all six licenses contains the text “OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS”. This should read “OR THE PRESENCE OF ERRORS”.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.

2.5 jurisdiction ports

Canada – English 
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.
Canada – French
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Incorrectly included section.The last paragraph of Section 4(a) in BY-NC-ND was included in error and should be deleted.
India – English
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.

2.1 jurisdiction ports

Canada – English 
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.

2.0 Generic license suite

  • Typographical error.Section 5 in all six licenses contains the text “OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS”. This should read “OR THE PRESENCE OF ERRORS”.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.

2.0 Jurisdiction ports

Canada – English
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility” in all six licenses.
Canada – French
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
France
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Incorrect section reference.Section 5(a)(i) contains a reference to Section 4(e). This reference is only correct in the BY-NC-SA license. In BY and BY-ND this should be a reference to Section 4(c); in BY-SA, BY-NC, and BY-NC-ND it should be a reference to Section 4(d).
Germany
  • Compatibility.In section 4(b) of BY-SA, BY-NC-SA is erroneously listed as an example compatible port with BY-SA.
  • Incorrect spacing.In the introduction of BY, “UNTER DER VORAUSSETZUNGEIN, DASS” should instead read “UNTER DER VORAUSSETZUNG EIN, DASS”.
  • Repeated numbering.Section 1(f) of BY is mistakenly labeled with “f. f.”; there should be only one.
  • Repeated comma.In Section 5, “vereinbart,,” should red “vereinbart,”.
  • Repeated numbering.Section 8(a) of BY is mistakenly labeled with “a. a.”; there should be only one.
  • Typographical errors. In all six licenses, the Disclaimer contains several typographical errors. “ALL RECHTE” should be “ALLE RECHTE”; “LIZENSGEBERS” should be “LIZENZGEBERS”; “KENIE VERTRAGSPARTEI” should be “KEINE VERTRAGSPARTEI”, and “ÜBREEINSTIMMUNG” should be “ÜBEREINSTIMMUNG”.
Italy
  • Repeated section.Section 4(b) of BY-SA is an exact duplicate of Section 4(a). It should instead discuss the conditions under which Derivative Works may be distributed. The passage in Version 2.5 of the Italy license contains the correct text.

1.0 license suite

Israel port
  • Typographical error.In Section ח.1, the text is in the masculine but the pronoun is feminine; ” בכל פעם שאת מפיץ” should instead be “בכל פעם שאתה מפיץ”.

CC0 (1.0)

  • Incorrect word.In Section 4(b), “the present or absence of errors” should read “the presence or absence of errors”.

Developing Nations 2.0 (deprecated)

  • Typographical error.In section 1(c), “enconomy” should read “economy”.
  • Misspelling. In Section 5, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility”.

Sampling 1.0 (deprecated)

  • Misspelling. In Section 4, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility”.

Sampling Plus 1.0 (deprecated)

  • Misspelling. In Section 4, “Merchantability” is misspelled as “Merchantibility”.