Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-licenses - Re: Future plans

cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Rob Myers <robmyers AT mac.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Future plans
  • Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 19:59:00 +0100

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.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page