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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: "James Moore" <jhmfa AT rit.edu>
  • To: <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Liability Issues
  • Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:01:15 -0500

Forgive me, I am a newbie.

I think that I share an interest with creative commons.

Let me explain my situation. I am in the information security field. Many
peers have often said that we need to be as effective at communication as the
hackers are. But we are not, frequently. Why? Because of legal
constraints. Hackers don't respect copyrights, although they do give credits
often to others for coming up with innovative hacks. But the biggest reason,
in my mind, is liability. Falling victim to a hack is costly. Business
folks see litigation as a way of cost recovery. If I provide you with our 10
steps to better security, release it under creative commons license, and it
fails in your environment because of some assumption that we overlooked, then
we might get sued.

I asked our legal counsel to come up with a short alternative to the GNU
public license that would say

1) We are providing this for informational purposes, we make no guarantees.
2) Test it in your own environment, before you rely on it. Don't sue us.
3) Use it, reuse it, etc, just give us credit for the original, and retain
any listing of a listserv devoted to the continuation of development.

They came up with the following template:

© 200x Rochester Institute of Technology. All Rights Reserved.
This [presentation, documentation, software tool, diagram, audio, video]
described herein ("<Title>") is provided by the Rochester Institute of
Technology ("RIT") to external entities solely as an informational reference. 
Use of or reliance on it is entirely at your discretion and risk.  RIT is
committed to the further development and improvement of this presentation,
and encourages you to provide feedback or otherwise participate in this
effort by participating in the "<Title>" listserv (<Listserv address>) and
supporting the RIT security site: <Website> You may use, copy, modify, and
distribute the "<Title>", subject to the following:
· for use, copy, or distribution, the above copyright notice and this
permission notice shall be included, unmodified, in all whole or partial
copies of the "<Title>",
·  if you modify "<Title>", you must clearly indicate that fact on all whole
or partial copies of "<Title>";
· Also, there must be a statement that the document is derived from "<Title>"
developed and owned by the Rochester Institute of Technology and protected by
copyright. You must also include the listserv address for discussion of
improvements, and the RIT security website address to facilitate community
development.

Where do we overlap? What are we missing? How can I promote responsibility
in the area of "Use of or reliance on it is entirely at your discretion and
risk" and avoid liability when I share the best information that I have
available?

Jim

- - -
Jim Moore, CISSP, IAM
Information Security Officer
Rochester Institute of Technology
13 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, NY 14623-5603
Office: 585-475-5406
Fax: 585-475-7950

"In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems"
- William Shakespeare (Henry V, Act 2, Scene 4)





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