Superceding CC-BY-NC as CC-BY by terms of license agreement
<p>I'm using a dataset of imagery that is provided by Open Aerial Map. Their license terms are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All imagery is publicly licensed and made available through the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team's Open Imagery Network (OIN) Node. All imagery contained in OIN is licensed CC-BY 4.0, with attribution as contributors of Open Imagery Network. All imagery is available to be traced in OpenStreetMap.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>By submitting imagery to OpenAerialMap, you agree to place your imagery into the Open Imagery Network (OIN) through OpenAerialMap. The original copyright remains with the original source or holder of the imagery but you grant OAM to license the imagery as CC-BY 4.0, with attribution as contributors of Open Imagery Network. All imagery is available to be traced in OpenStreetMap.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Each image, as provided to Open Aerial Map, also comes with its additional licensing metadata which varies between CC-BY, CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-SA.</p>
<p>Here's an example of such a conflict: <a href="https://api.openaerialmap.org/meta/5ce4b726acfb8e0006396f98" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://api.openaerialmap.org/meta/5ce4b726acfb8e0006396f98</a> (top level metadata says CC-BY 4.0, while the image is CC-BY-NC).</p>
<pre><code>{
  &quot;meta&quot;: {
    &quot;provided_by&quot;: &quot;OpenAerialMap&quot;,
    &quot;license&quot;: &quot;CC-BY 4.0&quot;,
    &quot;website&quot;: &quot;http://beta.openaerialmap.org&quot;,
    &quot;page&quot;: 1,
    &quot;limit&quot;: 100,
    &quot;found&quot;: 12614
  },
  &quot;results&quot;: {
    &quot;_id&quot;: &quot;5ce4b726acfb8e0006396f98&quot;,
    &quot;acquisition_end&quot;: &quot;2019-05-15T16:00:00.000Z&quot;,
    &quot;acquisition_start&quot;: &quot;2019-05-15T15:00:00.000Z&quot;,
    &quot;contact&quot;: &quot;-&quot;,
    &quot;platform&quot;: &quot;uav&quot;,
    &quot;provider&quot;: &quot;-&quot;,
    &quot;properties&quot;: {
      &quot;license&quot;: &quot;CC BY-NC 4.0&quot;,
      &quot;sensor&quot;: &quot;RGB&quot;,
      &quot;crs&quot;: &quot;EPSG:3100&quot;,
      &quot;dimensions&quot;: [
        26451,
        41263
      ],

...
</code></pre>
<ul>
<li>Are these licenses effectively converted to CC-BY 4.0 by the terms of submission?</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong></p>
<p>I contacted OAM with no response.</p>
<p>See also the upload form, where this is explained to users:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NbO6Y.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NbO6Y.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<h2>No</h2>
<p>CC is set up in a way, that you can not put any item acquired under one license under a more permissive license set in any way without breaching the license terms.</p>
<p>A work that is CC-BY-NC can not become just CC-BY under the terms of the CC-BY-NC, as the -NC does not allow that part to be dropped as the CC-BY-NC license text demands you can't license the new work in any fashion that allows commercial use.</p>
<p>It's only allowed to transmit into a more restrictive license scheme (e.g. adding -NC, -ND, or -SA), and never possible to drop a -NC, -ND or -SA.</p>
<p>There is one exception: if something is already under a Share Alike license, you can not tack on any limitations either! <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A ...-SA license can not be changed to <strong>any</strong> other license type <strong>at all</strong></a>, not CC-BY-NC-SA, not more permissive, not less permissive, not even an equivalent license scheme. The license terms on such a work is permanently fixed if you get it under that license.</p>
<h2>Which license applies?</h2>
<p>It is unsure if the author or someone that received the work under a more permissive license than CC-BY-SA/CC-BY-NC did grant <strong>just OAM</strong> a license under CC-BY. In case there is a claim against OAM, it would be the duty of OAM to prove that they had received the work under this license and thus <em>could</em> grant it under CC-BY.</p>
<p>The diligent thing for someone receiving the work down the line from OAM would be to presume the work to be under the most restrictive license that can be found in the metadata. In case those are incompatible with the proposed use, then the item can't be used.</p>

creative-commons