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Creative Commons (CC) licenses are known to be irrevocable. The documentation even contains a paragraph named "What if I change my mind about using a CC license ?".

Recently, I have encountered that in French Intellectual Property (IP) law, allows a "droit de retrait" (retraction/removal right in English) which is definitely incompatible with CC license.

Which one primes on the other? I would probably say that French Law is more powerful and would void the contract, but a second opinion is very welcomed (especially with more information).

brclz
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1 Answers1

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Disclaimer: I am not an expert in French law, but do read French semi-decently.

French Law is indeed more powerful than a CC license. This is because licenses are contracts, and contracts only have as much force as the law provides for.

As previously mentioned on this site, Creative Commons acknowledges that even a CC0 license (the least restrictive CC licence) cannot necessarily revoke all of an author's rights, particularly moral rights.

In France, moral rights include a droit de retrait. This does not mean the CC license as a whole would be invalid, but it certainly seems that an irrevocability clause would be.

Side note: The droit de retrait is hard to invoke and is not applicable to software.

Community
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DPenner1
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