Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>]

On 21 Oct 2004, at 18:01, Sigmascape1 AT cs.com wrote:

> Dedicating content to the public domain is critical to the success of 
> the open content movement.

IMHO quite the opposite: every dedication to the Public Domain 
undermines the Open Content movement. PD work can be used without 
giving anything back. It will not grow the commons. I can easily see 
companies pushing PD and PD-alike licenses to allow them to take 
people's work: see the sudden liking that Microsoft/AdTI found for the 
BSD license when faced with the success of the GPL.

> The standard CC licenses are important, and I know that the copyright 
> middle ground that CC serves is also very important, but I'd like to 
> see some emphasis on public domain issues.

There's the Centre For The Public Domain:

        http://www.centerforthepublicdomain.org/

They do an excellent job. I think CC should concentrate on licensing 
and let the Centre do the PD side of things.

> I am not trying to soapbox, I am just trying to remind everyone how 
> important the public domain is, and will be in the future.

Via creative-friends:

From BNA's Internet Law News:

DUTCH PARLIAMENTARIANS TO PUSH FOR INCREASED PUBLIC DOMAIN
Parliamentarians from Dutch ruling and opposition parties
unanimously agreed that most images currently owned by Dutch
public broadcasters should be released into the public
domain and allowed to be distributed online.
<http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=3911>

If this goes ahead it'll make the Creative Archive look kinda anaemic.

- Rob.