Is it possible to license only parts of a derivative work?

Question

This is kind of a follow-up question to one I asked earlier. I thought that if I generalize it, it would be better to ask it separately.

I want to create a derivative work of another work, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA). This means that I need to release my work under a license compatible with CC-BY-SA.

The problem is that in my work, I also have other elements (e.g. fonts and images), which I have no right to license.

So, is it in some way possible for me to be compatible with CC-BY-SA? For example by licensing only the parts I made under CC-BY-SA and making it clear that those other elements are not licensed under CC-BY-SA?

Answer 1

Yes.

If your derivative work contains content which you do not have rights to, such as quotations or other content used under fair use or fair dealing, or such as embedded fonts, a CC-BY-SA license would not even purport to license those elements, as I understand it. But it would be proper, perhaps desirable, to explicitly state this as part of the license statement. Something such as: "This document contains {description} to which I, the author, do not hold copyright, and which is not included in the license granted here."

This would also be true for an original document which included fair use elements, but which the author wishes to license under CC-BY-SA. See the license used by Wikipedia as an example.