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cc-licenses - [cc-licenses] ShareAlike and version compatibility

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Evan Prodromou <evan AT prodromou.name>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [cc-licenses] ShareAlike and version compatibility
  • Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:30:47 -0400

This is something of a wishful thinking question.

Within the text of the CCPL, there are several references to "this License": <>
  • You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work only under the terms of this License, ...
  • You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier for, this License with every copy or phonorecord of the Work You distribute [...]
  • You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform a Derivative Work only under the terms of this License, a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License, [...] I wonder: would it be at all reasonable to consider "this License" to be, say, the Attribution-ShareAlike license in any of its versions? That is, when the license text says "this license", it'd mean an object that has gone through several revisions over the last few years?

    I ask because this interpretation would make the different versions of ShareAlike licenses with the same license elements mutually compatible. You could distribute a by-sa 1.0 work under the terms of the 2.5 license, or vice versa. That'd be a help for projects where license upgrades are uncomfortable (for example, wikis).

    Anyways, I was optimistic about the idea until I read the last bullet point above; referring to "a later version of this License" seems to make it clear that "this License" means "this particular version".

    ~Evan

    --
    Evan Prodromou <evan AT prodromou.name>



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