[cc-community] CC-BY content usable under GFDL

Matthew J. Agnello matt.agnello at gmail.com
Sun May 4 13:40:21 EDT 2008


> I meant to make no great point other than to point out that a  
> license with
> basically an attribution requirement could be incompatible with a  
> specific
> copyleft license.

Certainly makes sense, I'm just trying to understand how this works  
for BSD and the GPL. The article doesn't say why the two are  
incompatible, only that they are. By my understanding, as long as the  
attribution requirements don't conflict -- a quick skim of the GPL  
text didn't reveal any obvious conflicts -- the final work's license  
requirements would still consist of the sum of all license requirements.

Best,
// Matt


--
Matthew J. Agnello
http://hungryfilmmaker.com/
< matt.agnello at gmail.com >

On May 4, 2008, at 10:15 AM, drew Roberts wrote:

> On Sunday 04 May 2008 12:15:55 Matthew J. Agnello wrote:
>>>> Since CC BY has no license requirements other than attribution, I
>>>> would think it could be used in any work as long as attribution is
>>>> given, including ARR work.
>>>
>>> There can still be problems,can't there?... See the Original BSD and
>>> GPL
>>> issues:
>>>
>>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#OriginalBSD
>>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html
>>
>> Yeah, the "obnoxious BSD advertising clause" seems a little
>> ridiculous. I suppose there can always be practical problems when
>> choosing to use content from one license within the context of
>> another. I'm not sure what you mean specifically by pointing out the
>> original BSD problem; do you mean CC BY and original BSD could  
>> produce
>> a long list of authors (or advertising clauses), or other license
>> requirements that would be practically impossible to follow?
>>
>> I agree that might be the case, but I think a user willing to go
>> through with those requirements gains the legal right to use a
>> particular work in any way as long as he or she follows all the
>> license requirements. To clarify, I'm talking about situations where
>> you use CC BY licensed content in a particular work and license it
>> with some other license. You might do this because you like the other
>> license better, or you're using work from another copyleft license  
>> and
>> have to comply with those requirements. I don't see anything legally
>> wrong with doing this. IANAL, but let me give my reasoning below.
>>
>> Assuming the license requirements did not conflict with one  
>> another, I
>> believe you could use each license's work together provided you fill
>> ALL the license requirements of each.
>>
>> Let's say we have some content using two different licenses, CopyLeft
>> and NonCopyleft. Because the license requirements don't overlap,  
>> using
>> the two together shouldn't be a problem as long as you fulfill both
>> sets of requirements.
>>
>> FinalWork = SomeContent( CopyLeft ) + SomeContent( NonCopyLeft );
>> FinalWork.Requirements = CopyLeft.Requirements() +
>> NonCopyLeft.Requirements();
>>
>> However, because one of CopyLeft's requirements is that you license
>> under CopyLeft, we have to do that.
>>
>> FinalWork.License = CopyLeft( FinalWork );
>>
>> But let's say we're using some content using two non-copyleft  
>> licenses
>> called NonCopyLeftA and NonCopyLeftB. Assuming the license
>> requirements do not conflict, the requirements to use these works  
>> will
>> be as follows:
>>
>> FinalWork = SomeContent( NonCopyLeftA ) +  
>> SomeContent( NonCopyLeftB );
>> FinalWork.Requirements = NonCopyLeftA.Requirements(); +
>> NonCopyLeftB.Requirements();
>>
>> In this case, neither license has a requirement that the final work  
>> be
>> licensed a certain way. So, we can license our final work however we
>> want.
>>
>> FinalWork.License = ARR( FinalWork );
>>
>> So, the list of license requirements might become excessively long  
>> and
>> practically impossible as we add more licenses and therefore more
>> requirements, but as long as the final work's requirements has one or
>> fewer copyleft requirements and no one requirement conflicts with any
>> other, I believe it's legally possible to use non-copyleft work under
>> any license you want.
>>
>> Again, IANAL, this is not legal advice (only C++).
>
> I meant to make no great point other than to point out that a  
> license with
> basically an attribution requirement could be incompatible with a  
> specific
> copyleft license.
>
> So using the comment I replied to as a rule of thumb for a search of  
> content
> is fine, taking it as an all clear may cause you problems depending  
> on the
> circumstances.
>
> So, just more of a heads up comment by me for those who have not  
> thought much
> about this.
>
> I could be mistaken as well.
>>
>> Best,
>> // Matt
>
> all the best,
>
> drew
>>
>> --
>> Matthew J. Agnello
>> http://hungryfilmmaker.com/
>> < matt.agnello at gmail.com >
>>
>> On May 4, 2008, at 8:37 AM, drew Roberts wrote:
>>> On Sunday 04 May 2008 11:26:41 Matthew J. Agnello wrote:
>>>> Since CC BY has no license requirements other than attribution, I
>>>> would think it could be used in any work as long as attribution is
>>>> given, including ARR work. Hopefully the Wikimedia's request for  
>>>> true
>>>> interoperability will finally get filled by CC and FSF; I know it's
>>>> been on the table for some time now.
>>>
>>> There can still be problems,can't there?... See the Original BSD and
>>> GPL
>>> issues:
>>>
>>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#OriginalBSD
>>> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html
>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> // Matt
>>>
>>> all the best,
>>>
>>> drew
>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Matthew J. Agnello
>>>> http://hungryfilmmaker.com/
>>>> < matt.agnello at gmail.com >
>>>>
>>>> On May 4, 2008, at 6:44 AM, Chris Watkins wrote:
>>>>> After some digging, I discovered that CC-by material can be used
>>>>> under GFDL - which is very good news.
>>>>>
>>>>> It seems strange that this info is buried rather than  
>>>>> prominently on
>>>>> the CC site, but the source is James Grimmelmann, a law academic,
>>>>> and it seems like he should know. I added the source link to the  
>>>>> CC
>>>>> wiki, at
>>>>> http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Interoperability_between_Creative_Commo
>>>>> ns _licenses_and_GFDL#CC-by
>>>>>
>>>>> It does seem that there should be some more official statement on
>>>>> the CC site, from CC and/or FSF - the source I have is a one word
>>>>> answer on a mailing list (even if it is from someone who should
>>>>> know).
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Chris Watkins (a.k.a. Chriswaterguy)
>>>>>
>>>>> Appropedia.org, the wiki of:
>>>>> - Anti-poverty strategies
>>>>> - Sustainability
>>>>> - Appropriate technology
>>>>> - Collaboration for practical solutions
>>>>>
>>>>> Blog: chriswaterguy.livejournal.com/
>>>>>
>>>>> Buying at Amazon, eBay etc? Start at http://appropedia.maatiam.com
>>>>> and a percentage of your purchase supports Appropedia - at no  
>>>>> extra
>>>>> cost.
>>>>>
>>>>> Desperate Housewives essentially functioned as a kind of cognitive
>>>>> heat sink, dissipating thinking that might otherwise have built up
>>>>> and caused society to overheat. -- Clay Shirky
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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