Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Greg London" <email AT greglondon.com>]

Elf M. Sternberg said:
> I'm looking for a licensing option and I'm not sure which one is exactly
> right.  I have a large SF story archive that I have under a creative
> commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs2.0 (which is more or less
> what I've been using, in one form or another, since about 1990).
>
> Several of my fans would like to publish their role-playing materials
> based upon my stories.  I would like to be able to make that material
> public, using an Attribution-NonCommericial-ShareAlike2.0.
>
> I appreciate that there's a very fuzzy line between an RPG module and a
> narrative story, but is there a reasonably clean way to make this
> distinction?

No.

I have suggested to CC that the NonCommercial-ShareAlike combination
be called the FanClub license to more accurately describe how it
can be used. Fans can use your work to create fan fiction
of various sorts, the ShareAlike restriction requires that they play
nicely together, and the NonCommercial restriction means they cannot
make money off whatever they create, even indirectly.

You might consider releasing your original work under NC-SA
to allow fans to create some really cool derivatives but to keep
the commercial rights to your work.

The problem I see with trying to draw a line around the TYPES of
derivatives you want to allow (story versus RPG) is that it could
quickly get into hair splitting when a fan puts a story inside
the RPG stuff to show how the gaming system works or a fan
mentions a character name from your original story in a way
you don't like and you call it "story" and they see it as "RPG".

You might argue that you and your fans will be much more reasonable
than that, and that kind of bickering will never happen, but if that's
the case, why not release your work under NC-SA and allow your fans
to play?

If you insist on controling it, the only clean way to do it would be to
have them show you the RPG system in a complete and self-contained
work, and give your approval to put CC-NC-ND on that one specific work.
It would require some input from you, but it would put the hair-splitting
up front and wouldn't cause a mismatch of expectations down the road.

The point of CC's market economy licenses is to give up some of your
rights as a way to empower your readers on some level so they can
champion your stories. too much restrictions or vague restrictions
doesn't really empower your readers. Either empower them to get
creative in their own way (NC-SA), or work with them to create a singular
RPG work that has your approval (NC-ND).

Greg

-- 
Hungry for a good read? Crave science fiction?
Get a taste of "Hunger Pangs" by Greg London.
http://www.greglondon.com/hunger/