attribution

Ben Judson ben at eatworms.org
Sat May 31 16:15:30 EDT 2003


I'm new to this list, and have only briefly skimmed the archives, so 
I apologize if I'm rehashing old stuff here....

Attribution is a big issue here, and finding an elegant way to deal 
with it is going to be essential for many would-be Creative 
Commons/Open Content authors.  I notice that the Open Publication 
License (OPL) deals with this in a more direct manner than the 
Creative Commons licenses.  The OPL (http://opencontent.org/openpub/) 
lays out the following requirements:

1. The modified version must be labeled as such.
2. The person making the modifications must be identified and the 
modifications dated.
3. Acknowledgement of the original author and publisher if applicable 
must be retained according to normal academic citation practices.
4. The location of the original unmodified document must be identified.
5. The original author's (or authors') name(s) may not be used to 
assert or imply endorsement of the resulting document without the 
original author's (or authors') permission.

This (esp. requirement 2) is pretty extensive compared to the CC 
licenses.  So my question is: is there an elegant way to provide this 
kind of information regarding the 'version history' of a work?  If 
the work is to be kept in the digital realm, some slight modification 
of the 'wiki' system would do the job nicely (allowing and tracking 
modifications by, potentially, anyone).  Some word processors also 
collect and save data about modifications.  The OPL provides for 
restricting the work to a specific medium -- you can designate that a 
work remain only in print form, for instance, or restrict others from 
putting it in print form (thus you could keep it in a system which 
'guarantees' the authenticity of the credited authors).

But in print form this kind of rigorous attribution system seems 
doomed to be awkward.  With the advent of DRM, PDF, Wiki, etc. etc. 
the concept of limiting the media on which a work may appear seems to 
be closely intertwined with the concept of attribution.

I love what you're doing at Creative Commons.  The project is much 
more extensive and ambitious than anything of its type that I've seen 
so far.

Thanks,
Ben.
-- 

eatworms.org ++ burn the lines of the city ++
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