[cc-community] FSF question
Jim Baker
frstprin at mninter.net
Mon Nov 26 13:49:19 EST 2007
Thanks, Greg. This is very helpful.
Jim
On Nov 24, 2007, at 6:45 PM, Greg London wrote:
>> why bother to copyright something if you're going to
>> give it away and recipients can do anything they want with it?
>
> Copyright is automatic as soon as a work is created,
> so you must license it somehow to give up the rights
> you want to give up.
>
> You could license it under a public domain style license
> such as the latest BSD license. This basically puts the
> work one step removed from the public domain. Poeple can
> create derivatives and hold them as All Rights Reserved,
> and you and the community would not be able to use those
> modifications if you used a public domain style license.
>
> If you want to guarantee that any modifications made
> by anyone are available to everyone else, including you,
> then you would use a copyleft license.
>
> If it's a small/tiny program, then you might be able to
> go with a public domain style license. If it's a program
> that is large, or that you expect a lot of modifications to,
> bug fixes, features, and those are things you would like to
> be able to guarantee that you can legally incorporate everyone
> else's updates into your copy of the code, the you'd want
> a Copyleft license like GPL. You'd want GPL, as opposed to
> CC-ShareAlike, because GPL has a source code requirement
> that does not exist in CC-ShareAlike.
>
> WIthout a source code clause, people can easily bypass the
> copyleft requirement by simply modifying the source, compiling
> it, and then only distributing the binary. GNU-GPL closes this
> loophole.
>
> Whether you want to choose a public domain style license
> or a copyleft license depends on what sort of goals you
> have for the software. If you want to be able to use
> any improvements and additions that people make to your
> code, then go with GNU-GPL. If you don't care what anyone
> else does with it, and you want to allow private forks,
> then use a public domain license.
>
> The selection process for choosing between a public domain
> style license and a copyleft license is something I go
> into slightly more detail at the below link, if you're
> interested:
>
> http://www.greglondon.com/dtgd/html/
> draftingthegiftdomain.htm#8_Copyleft_or_Public_Domain_
>
> Best of luck,
> Greg London
> "Bounty Hunters: Metaphors for Fair IP Law"
> http://www.GregLondon.com
>
>
>> I'm an educator with one little software application I'd like to
>> distribute with a copyrighted lesson book. The software can be used
>> independently. The idea driving the software is more than a freebie
>> come-on: it's that it would be distributable to students without
>> licensing encumbrances so that computer based activities begun in a
>> classroom could be continued elsewhere at no charge. (The idea seems
>> slow to catch on—teachers seem to like the idea of keeping the
>> mathematics thought-stream under close supervision.)
>>
>> I'm still not sure how to license the software. I've read the legally
>> dense fsf site and have to say I'm still a little confused about how
>> copyleft works and why bother to copyright something if you're going
>> to
>> give it away and recipients can do anything they want with it? There's
>> also a file of practice games that was written for another app we
>> previously used that is "called" by the software app to display within
>> it. We don't know if that needs or could have a separate license.
>>
>> I realize this doesn't seem to be the key issue here, but since
>> there's
>> a whiff of commercialism (sale of a lesson book that can be used with
>> the software app) to my question, fsf wants to charge me $150.00 for a
>> 30 minute consultation to answer. If I had a successful commercial
>> enterprise, I would probably happily pay! I don't. Writers here seem
>> knowledgeable about these issues, so clarification would be
>> appreciated.
>> Jim
>>
>> BTW: is there anything in my post that is relevant to CC community?
>>
>> On Nov 23, 2007, at 6:00 PM, Mike Linksvayer wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 2007-11-23 at 16:20 -0500, Gavin Baker wrote:
>>>> http://www.gavinbaker.com/2007/11/23/gfdl-revision-is-there-hope-
>>>> for-
>>>> cc-interoperability/
>>>>
>>>> The FSF, as part of the GPLv3 process, is updating the Free
>>>> Documentation License used by Wikipedia. See the link above for
>>>> information on commenting on the license draft.
>>>>
>>>> I hope we can come to a mutually-agreeable solution!
>>>
>>> Me too. Nevermind CC, FDL/BY-SA (and why not Art Libre too)
>>> compatibility is critical if you believe copyleft has an important
>>> role
>>> to play in pulling more of the content universe into the free
>>> category,
>>> as it has in the software universe. A copyleft license is really
>>> successful when people who don't care about the ideology of the
>>> license
>>> start adopting it because they pragmatically want to reuse stuff
>>> licensed under it. Incompatible copyleft licenses delay and endanger
>>> the onset of this critical mass.
>>>
>>> By the way, there is a massive thread (one of many) on GFDL
>>> relicensing
>>> currently running on one of the Wikimedia Foundation's lists, see
>>> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-November/
>>> thread.html#35178
>>>
>>> --
>>> http://wiki.creativecommons.org/User:Mike_Linksvayer
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>> It takes 20 years of hard work to become an overnight success."
>> --Diana Rankin,
>> writer and public speaker
>>
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It takes 20 years of hard work to become an overnight success."
--Diana Rankin,
writer and public speaker
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