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cc-licenses - Re: [cc-licenses] Universal Copyleft License [was: Mapping of license restrictions (CC - GFDL compatibility)]

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Rob Myers <rob AT robmyers.org>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [cc-licenses] Universal Copyleft License [was: Mapping of license restrictions (CC - GFDL compatibility)]
  • Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 11:00:59 +0000

On 10 Dec 2005, at 22:38, drew Roberts wrote:

I don't think the point of the post was that the person had specifically
chosen the license to frustrate specifically you.

My hugely inflated ego aside, I was trying to explain why I might want to mis-treat the work rather than simply use it in an incompatible way. :-)

I think it was that they
specifically chose the license to frustrate anyone who wants to do what you
want to do with their work. They don't want the things done which you want to
do. It has nothing to do with prior misuse as I read it.

If I am motivated by a general desire to mis-use the work rather than a legitimate need to use the work that is accidentally frustrated by the license, I will simply exploit whichever license is used in order to cause mischief.

For example I can take a Wikipedia FDL article, produce a derivative and add the words "wikipedia sux0rs!" as cover text (I hasten to add that I personally love Wikipedia, this is just an example), and the derivative is made both offensive *and* unusable to Wikipedia.

Incidentally, this is another reason why CC's "compatibility" is so problematic. Under the FDL you can make derivatives of a work incompatible with the original work if they are trying to mis-use FDL as a general purpose copyleft license rather than as a computer manual license that allows you to attach un-editable political texts. For Wikipedia, FDL can be made incompatible with *itself*. This is something CC cannot solve with a multi-license facade or a BY-SA backdoor.

- Rob.




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