[cc-licenses] Use cases for cc by-sa compatibility with GPL

Francesco Poli invernomuto at paranoici.org
Wed Jan 11 17:05:58 EST 2012


On Thu, 5 Jan 2012 10:02:47 -0500 drew Roberts wrote:

> On Wednesday 04 January 2012 07:46:52 Ben Finney wrote:
[...]
> > If so, then I don't understand why that distinction is important. Why
> > should we support dividing up the freedoms in a work depending on
> > whether the recipient can use it as a program?
> 
> If we could nail down "source" requirements for non-code, there would be less 
> of a need to make this distinction.

I am convinced that a definition of source code for non-programmatic
software works (that is to say, what you call "non-code") has already
been nailed down.
It's the same definition that holds for programmatic software works and
is included in the GNU GPL (I would especially refer to version 2):
"the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it."
I think that this definition embodies what is really needed to avoid
putting recipients in a position of (technical) disadvantage with
respect to the author, when it comes to making modifications to the
work.

> >
> > Do recipients of non-program works deserve fewer freedoms?
> 
> In my mind, they do not deserve fewer freedoms. But in the mind of the folks 
> behind the GPL, they do deserve fewer freedoms. (To use that terminology.) 
> So, I don't want any of my non-code works to fall under their licensing 
> control as I do not trust them to be concerned about preserving those same 
> freedoms for my non code as they intend to preserve for my code.

I think that releasing a work and allowing it to be distributed under
the terms of the GNU GPL, does *not* put this work under the "licensing
control" of the FSF.
Especially when a finite set of GPL versions is chosen, rather than
"version X or later" (which is a infinite set of possible versions,
namely version X + any existing or future versions published by the FSF
later than version X).

It's true (and unfortunate) that the FSF promotes lower freedom
standards for non-programmatic software works.
However, it does not do so by publishing a GNU GPL that holds
non-programmatic software works to these lower standards (at least, it
hasn't yet, and I hope it will never do that).
What the FSF does, in order to promote lower freedom standards for
non-programmatic software works, is recommending the adoption of other
licenses than the GPL for those works.

Hence, by adopting the GNU GPL for a work, one is really holding this
work to the higher freedom standards that the FSF thinks only programs
deserve (but that I personally think all software works, both
programmatic and non-programmatic, deserve).


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