[cc-community] Public-domain-style licenses (was Re: Why "Wiki license" = CC-BY-SA?)
Terry Hancock
hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Fri Jan 18 12:57:26 EST 2008
Greg London wrote:
> If "public domain style license" isn't clear enough,
> then I need a term that describes the set of licenses
> that are nearly public domain except for some basic
> requirements to keep copyright notices, names, titles,
> and urls in place and so on. These works are licensed
> in such a way that they are clearly different than
> a copyleft work or an all rights reserved work.
I agree this is a problem. "Free/Non-Copyleft" is what I use, but it's a
mouthful, and it's a bit recursive since it defines itself in terms of
Copyleft, even though it's a simpler idea.
What about just calling it "attribution-only" or perhaps just
"attribution"? You could leave out the details as to what sort of
attribution is required, and IMHO this is distinct enough to avoid
confusion with the "Creative Commons Attribution" license, even though
they sound similar.
AFAIK, the only thing these licenses require different from public
domain is attribution notices of some kind or other (although varying
from an invisible credit in an associated file to a front-cover
advertising placement).
They generally also disclaim warranty, but this just recovers the state
of public domain works for whom there is no author to claim a warranty
against.
So, I think "attribution" covers it.
> "Public Domain Plus One"
I think that's really cheesy, myself. Also, it has one more syllable
than even "Free/Non-Copyleft" which I thought was already too much of a
mouthful.
But it does note the distinction.
> Then the question is what does the "plus one" mean.
But I think it always means "attribution" for the licenses we are
talking about.
There are also licenses that restrict against certain kinds of uses, but
I don't think you mean to consider these.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
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