Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>]

On 21 Oct 2004, at 18:42, Greg London wrote:

> The commons is like the shared pasture or shared ocean resources.

Both concepts share the idea of responsible resource management & 
renewal. If I fence off an area of the commons, or deploy drift-nets, 
I'm denying resources to others. In the case of drift nets (or cutting 
down rainforest for ranches), I'm eventually denying resources *to 
myself*. So it is with PD'ing something.

> Well, not "every" dedication. I think it is simply a function of
> whether or not the project can finish or whether it is surpassed
> by proprietary competition that uses the Public Domain work against
> the very project that created it.

Your writing has been pivotal in my understanding of these issues but I 
don't think you're capturing the dynamic here. Most PD dedications or 
arrivals are finished, atomic works, not Wikis (or whatever). They will 
not be displaced by "proprietary" competition (or if they will, this is 
just competition). But if they are used in a "proprietary" work without 
return, the drift nets are out.

> A project that has a fixed goal, does not require a lot of maintenance,
> and does not require a lot of long-term collaboration, could probably
> dedicate its finished product ot the Public Domain without problem.

This can easily describe movies, novels, records, paintings, a chemical 
formula, a graphic design, all things that it's easy to imagine being 
exploited without return if they are placed in the Public Domain.

> If a project can successfully complete and has no danger
> of having patent restrictions applied, I see no reason
> to exclude proprietary interests from using the results
> of that project on principles alone.

The average cultural work is unlikely to generate a patent, and is easy 
to "complete" as it can be created prior to release. IMHO these are not 
useful criteria for analysis. But any project can make an exploiter 
more money than its creator and be used to limit the creation of future 
work.

PD'ing something is ideological. CC'ing something is practical. All 
CC'd work will end up in the Public Domain eventually. If it doesn't 
then the case for the licenses will grow stronger with every copyright 
term extension. :-)

- Rob.