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cc-licenses - Re: License compatibility

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Romain d'Alverny <aperio AT free.fr>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: License compatibility
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 15:14:17 +0100

Hi,

Selon Luke Stodola <lbs6380 AT rit.edu>:

> I've seen a few posts about compatibility with the GFDL. I for one
> would really like to see this worked out. It would be great to be able
> to "share-alike" between different licenses.

Not only great. Necessary, in some way : if people get to see several
free works under different licenses that allow the same things (I mean,
really the same), but those works cannot be merged because of incompatibility
between these licenses, it would be such a mess that using no license but just
a simple statement of intention (such as the Common Deed) would the only
way people would turn to ; I guess.

> In the context of free/libre/open-source,
> this license incompatibility seems very counterintuitive.

And counter effective, I think.

> The GFDL is probably the main other license, but there are others as
> well. The EFF Open Audio License comes to mind.
> The Open Content License is another important one. The Design Science
> License and the LinuxTag Green Open Music License are similar to
> CC-BY-SA but lesser-used.

The Free Art License is in the same situation. We are trying to figure
out a solution from our side too.

> One option might be for the share-alike license to have a list of other
> licenses which are derivative works can be released under.
> But this would have to be updated over time, and as another poster pointed
> out, this could be a problem if CC sways from its initial goals.

Actually, it may not be a problem.
Such a list of such licenses would need to comply to this, at lest :

- committed by an alleged set of people, so that the list may be recognized
as valid for most of the people ; elected people ? or representatives of
several organisations involved in license publication (CC, FSF for sure,
but others too ?) ;

- the list has a time stamp, which is older than any license in it ;

- the list is of specific versions of licenses ; not their descendants ;

- the compatibility is said between specific (and timestampped too)
versions of licenses ; derivatives licenses, or new versions of these
would not apply for this list, unless a new revision, committed by
a particular council.

For a list to be made to resolve the compatibility issue, it looks to me
the only credible way.
But, having a list may not the best solution, I'm not sure, although it
seems the simplest.


Romain d'Alverny
(French guy, using precisely the Free Art License).



  • License compatibility, Luke Stodola, 01/29/2004
    • Re: License compatibility, Romain d'Alverny, 01/29/2004

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