[cc-community] [cc-licenses] Most important feature: GPL-compatibility

Ben Finney bignose+hates-spam at benfinney.id.au
Thu Jan 26 22:56:42 EST 2012


drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> writes:

> On Thursday 26 January 2012 20:00:21 Anthony wrote:
> > On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 8:08 AM, drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:
> > > The original poem on paper is clearly marked BY-SA.

What is the preferred form of the poem for making modifications to it?

I think the answer is clearly “the poem itself”, i.e. the specific
characters that form the poem.

> > > What is the source for these pieces of paper?

There is no “source for the pieces of paper” in the sense we're talking
about here. A physical object – a piece of paper, a stone sculpture –
does not have a preferred form for making modifications to it, other
than the specific object itself.

But copyright doesn't apply to a physical object, it applies to whatever
expression is embodied in that object. So why do you keep asking about
source for physical objects?

> Of course, but what is the source that you have to give when you pass
> on the piece of paper with the poem on it?

The source for the original poem – the preferred form of the poem for
making modifications to it – is as I described above.

> Perhaps, but I am speaking with passing on copies or derivatives where
> a machine readable instance has never existed.

If a machine-readable instance has never existed and yet the copyright
holder grants CC-BY-SA license in the work, then the copyright holder
either expects that recipients will have no trouble getting such a
machine-readable instance, or is being disingenuous in their choice of
license.

> In the spirit of Freedom, I am always wanting to pass on the most
> "source" I can

I am not sure how you mean this. I will assume you mean “I want
recipients to have the best form of the work for making modifications to
it as I can give them”.

> but with the penalties for copyright violations being what they are
> and seemingly always getting worse, why put a general source
> requirement into by-sa unless the language / concept can be carefully
> and simply pinned down?

For a poem, you (as someone who wants to pass on to recipients the best
form of the work for making modifications to it) should then pass on the
character sequence that forms your poem, in a known encoding such as
UTF-8.

-- 
 \           “Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of |
  `\        religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest |
_o__)                  contribution to civilization.” —Steven Weinberg |
Ben Finney



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