Development of Creative Commons licenses

[email AT greglondon.com]

Rob Myers said:
> On Friday, March 19, 2004, at 03:49PM,
> <email AT greglondon.com> wrote:
>>So it's not "gift" as in getting a gift for you birthday,
>>its 'gift' as in 'gift economy' as in a culture that is
>>able to give someone the gift of a barn raising.
>
> I'm unfamiliar with that use of the term but if it has
> that historical precedent that's good.

take a quick look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

:: Gift economies were first formally recognized
:: in the potlatch rituals of Native American
:: societies in the Pacific Northwest.

The term "Indian Giver" came from early settler's
misunderstanding their encounters with Native American
gift cultures.

I've read and recommend Lewis Hyde:
"The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property",
1983 (ISBN 0394715195

If you want to get a glimpse of how a gift economy can
become self sufficient and long-term-viable, then read
this book. Nothing describes Linux evolving and developing
over a 20 year period better than a Gift Economy.

> How do you feel about the "commons" label?

"Commons" refers to common property shared by a group,
to which all members have free access and can use as
they will. The only license that fits "commons" is
"Public Domain".

This is the source of my main beef with the name
"Creative Commons" and the "Cow in pasture"
as their mascot. Their "image" is "Public Domain"
but they offer a NoDerivatives license.
So, in the way that "shareware" has tainted
the term "Shared Content", "Creative Commons"
has tainted the term "Commons".

The "Commons" also is subject to the
"tragedy of the commons", which is a
Game Theory analogy that explains overfishing
in oceans, and overgrazing in a commons pasture.

While Writings cannot be "overgrazed", a Public Domain
style license is open to Competition with Market driven
forces that take the Public Domain licensed work, add
new features to it and compete with the original
Public Domain work.

This market competition can cause a Gift Economy
of open/free/public works to collapse.

The only defense against Market competition is
Copyleft or ShareAlike, which allows market forces
to alter the work, but the new work must remain
within the Gift Economy.

See section 8 of Drafting the Gift Domain
for an more indepth explanation.
Section 8.3 has a side-by-side comparison
of how Copyleft and PublicDomain licenses
fair against Market Competition.

Which is NOT to say that Market Economy practices
are bad or should be replaced with Gift Economies,
but that for a Gift Economy to survive, it must be
designed to survive alongside a Market Economy.

Copyleft/ShareAlike is the only license that
guarantees a Gift Economy of writings enough
protection to survive alongside a Market Economy.