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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: "Greg London" <greglondon.1 AT gmail.com>
  • To: cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [cc-licenses] Free as in Gru
  • Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:24:23 -0400

Well, after yesterday's discussion,
I think it's abundantly clear that
there will always be folks who would
rather wrap themselves up in a flag,
call it Freedom, and to hell with what
actual actions their "Freedom" actually
allows.
 
These people are using the word "Freedom"
to have completely unrelated meanings just
so they can cast  themselves as fighting for
"Freedom". Wrap themselves in some meaningless
flag. So their actions become irrelevant.
 
And so, I think it's gotten to the point that
thanks to these people that the word
"Freedom" has become completely useless.
 
Free as in Speech?
Free as in Beer?

You might as well say
Free as in Gru.
 
"Free" has become a completely nonsensicle word
for people dealing with copyright and licenses.
 
You might as well start using the word "Patriotic"
or something. That's got a LONG history of being
applied to completely arbitrary definitions.
 
"Whatever I'm doing is patriotic,
whatever you're doing is not".
 
I suppose it is too much to expect people to use
words in a responsible way, to use "Freedom"
to mean what all the software folks have worked
out in the years past. But that's just not as fun I guess.
 
And so in ignoring the all the work done by all
the organizations in the past, poeple using
Creative Commons licenses get to throw out
a more restrictive definition. They get to use
the most restrictive licenses such as CC-NC-ND-BY,
and they get to say they're doign something about
freedom.
 
It has become a joke.
 
One might as well wrap themselves in a flag,
call themselves a patriot, and condemn anyone
who looks at their actions. It's the self applied
label of "Patriot" and "Freedom" that has become
important. If a person says they're a patriot or that
they're for Freedom, then you cannot question that
label based on their actions.  Apparently.
 
And so, the term Freedom has become useless.
Oh, sure, it's great for propaganda purposes.
 
"Join CC and fight for FREEDOM!"
 
But it doesn't actually MEAN anything consistent.
It doesn't mean that the works are actually free
for a community to use as they wish. It doesn't
mean that the author and the community are
equals to the work. It doesn't mean anything.
 
It has become a warm fuzzy that simply means
you BELONG to some organization and what
actions you take have become irrelevant.
 
It has become purely political. And you can simply
look at the Democrat and Republican parties.
They are both self-described patriots. and they
both describe the others as unpatriotic.
Their defintions have become so arbitrary that
about the only thing that you can really say
the word "Patriot" means to them is that you
must belong to their party to be a patriot.
 
And so, with all the twisting and turning,
with all the dictionary games being played
to find some connotation of the word "Freedom"
and some connotation of the word "Commons",
I think it is safe to say that the words are becoming
diluted to the point that the only really objective
measurable thing they mean is membership
to a group.
 
You are fighting for Freedom and building some
kind of Commons if you are a member of CC.
If you use their licenses. What the license actually
does and does not allow the public to do has become
irrelevant. The words don't mean anything.
The actions of the license don't mean anything.
 
The only thing that is important is that you are a member,
that you use a CC license. Do that and you're doing
something for freedom, for a commons.
 
Is it free as in speech? No clue.
Is it free as in beer? Who knows.
 
"Free" has become so meaningless that you might as well say
 
Free as in Gru.
 
 
 
 



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