Slashdot Mirror
Creative Commons v3.0 Launched
An anonymous reader writes "Creative Commons announced the release of its licenses on Friday 23 Feb 2007. Changes include "Clarifications Negotiated With Debian and MIT", CC-BY-SA "compatibility structure", endorsement control, etc."
a. [...] If You create an Adaptation, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Adaptation any credit as required by Section 4(b), as requested. All six primary Creative Commons licenses contain this provision. The GNU copyleft licenses (GNU General Public License and GNU Free Documentation License) do not allow authors to require downstream users to alter or remove credits. Therefore, it appears that the Creative Commons licenses are still incompatible with GNU licenses, and works under a Creative Commons license cannot be used in works under GNU licenses such as GPL computer games and GFDL software manuals. I've explained this in more detail on my user page on Wikimedia Commons.
Public domain is a greatly underrated and overlooked choice. It can make life vastly easier for users by not having to worry about tracking credits for every little nitpicking minutiae, but instead depends on commonsense ethics to make acknowledgments where appropriate, without having to worry about violating the fine print of some legal copyright license. For minor stuff where suing would be silly even if someone plagiarized it - from a simple utility icon to this very post you're reading - I think public domain release makes a lot of sense for those willing to do it but who are now simply unaware of the possibility.
On the other hand, they still haven't clarified the fine legal points of exactly what "commercial use" means. As I've posted here before, almost anything can be interpreted as "commercial use" if someone is so inclined. IMO almost any use of works under a noncommecial-only license is a risk not worth taking. In addition, they can't be incorporated into GPL software, so for open-source development "noncommercial-only" works are completely worthless.
So what? If they were completely compatible then I'd wonder what was the point of making up a new license at all. They don't do the same thing. The GPL is intended for use with software, Creative Commons adapts the idea of copyleft to apply to more traditional publishing.
I think the point is that there are different needs for different sorts of publishing. If you are working on code and its documentation, GPL is the way to go. Probably also a good choice for textbooks. More personalized work, like fiction, opinion pieces, even some technical discussions, need to be protected from unacknowledged alteration, so verbatim copying, or enforced modification of credits is entirely appropriate.
The concept of Free Software as embodied by the GPL does not generalize well beyond the confines of software, at least not without the sorts of modifications provided by Creative Commons licenses.
yp.
People (e.g., Debian) who want to distribute a program that is licensed under the GPL and that uses data files (icons, music, etc) that is licensed under Creative Commons licenses care.
I think the most important development is that the GPL and the LGPL are now official Creative Commons Licenses: http://creativecommons.org/license/cc-gpl?lang=en and http://creativecommons.org/license/cc-lgpl?lang=en .
I also like the "human readable" version of the licenses which list out the four essential software freedoms in a "deed" format: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
I think that there are more people who are familiar with the CC licensing system, than with the GPL, so this should really be helpful.
Of course, there is an issue as to whether the other CC licenses are compatible with the GPL/CC-GPL or with debian, etc. Thats where the debate is too.
I use CC licenses for my Java AI and Common Lisp primer "free web books" and was the 'featured commoner' a few years ago.
:-)
I am pleased that CC is not standing still on licenses. Although I have written 14 published books, there are a few strong reasons why I am transitioning to CC open content authoring; the the primary reason is that I tend to be interested in niche technical areas and conventional publishers in the past have pressured me to tailor my works to a larger market. I am in the slow process of "dual publishing" my CC licensed content: free PD downloads and lulu.com instant print books for a fee for the occasional reader who wants a physical book.
My original motive for doing CC open content was simply that I got tired of having teachers, etc. ask if they good copy a chapter or two of my published books for their students - and my having to turn down their requests because my publishers own my material. Other reasons for CC based open content are a wider readership and thus more frequent interesting connections with my readers.
Really, the only advantage of using publishers is making money
In recent years, Creative Commons has gone in an 'Open Source' direction, far from the principles of the Free Software Foundation that CC founder Lawrence Lessig said inspired his movement in the first place (cue howling anti-RMS Slashdotters).
In fact, in the recent GPLv3 furor, Lessig came down on the side of Linus Torvalds, against Richard Stallman. This is when I first began questioning the value of supporting CC by using one of their licenses.
It seems, like others in the 'Open Source' movement, CC has mades its compromises and now plays nicely with those who want to make a ton of money off of user generated content (MySpace, Rupert Murdoch anyone?), without necessarily preserving the rights of users.
CC now resides in the ESR category.