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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] Mapping of license restrictions (CC - GFDL compatibility)

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: wiki_tomos <wiki_tomos AT inter7.jp>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] Mapping of license restrictions (CC - GFDL compatibility)
  • Date: 26 Nov 2005 21:03:49 +0900

I realized that the previous post I is based on a wrong approach.
The question and overall conclusion is kind of similar, and the
mistake would not affect the opinions of others that followed my
post (like Rob's) but was not formulated correctly anyway.

In the previous email, I was discussing "How can Alice follow
typical license restrictions of CC-BY-SA and format the resulting
work as a usable GFDL'd work so that she can release it under
GFDL?" The question that should have been asked was "How can Alice
follow GFDL's license requirements using the information present
in a typical CC-BY-SA work?" I will illustrate some details of
this rather technical question in the following, though not at lengh.

When Alice releases a derivaive work created from Bob's CC-BY-SA'd
work, Alice has to comply with the terms of GFDL, according to the
proposed change. How can she do that? There are a number of questions
when one compares GFDL's requirements and types of information
necessary to fulfill those information on the one hand, and the
types of information that a typical CC-BY-SA'd work contains.

For example, she is supposed to create a History section, and it
should contain things like names of previous authors, years they
are created/modified. What if the Alice's work is a fifth generation
derivative, deriving from Bob, who derived his work from Cathy's,
who in turn derived her work from Doug's, who in turn used Ed's?
How likely is it that Alice knows title's of all the previous works?
Perhaps not much, given that CC-BY-SA does not seem to require
preservation of such information. GFDL says Alice should take these
pieces of information from "Title Page" or, when title page is absent,
prominent place near the title of the work, before the main text of
the work. It would be certainly possible for things like blog entry
to have no Title Page, nor those pieces of information near the
entry's title.

Another example. Alice has to change the title of the work into
something different from Bob's, and all other previous works
(Cathy, Dough, and Ed's, that is), unless they gave permission
for Alice to use the same title. Now what is the chance for
Alice to know titles of previous works that her work derive
from directly or indirectly? Again, not much. Does she have a
permission to use the same title? Not explicity, though it is
arguable that she has, given that CC-BY-SA license does not
ever require one to change title.

Just saying "if you want to release Derivative Work under GFDL,
follow its requirements" does not adequately solve these
difficult questions. GFDL assumes that the licensed work
has certain structure, with certain information placed at certain
part of the structure. Those assumptions do not necessarily
apply well to a typical CC-BY-SA'd work. Thus some uncertainties.
I think some of these should be addressed within the CC license,
others in FAQ, and only a part of these kinds of questions/uncertainties
should be left to the parties involved. The current proposal
for change is insufficient in that regard, I thought.

But again, I am not a lawyer, so my discussion here may be
sloppy and wrong.

Best,

Tomos




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