Development of Creative Commons licenses

["Luis Villa" <luis AT tieguy.org>]

On 8/28/06, Greg London <email AT greglondon.com> wrote:
> > On 8/28/06, Greg London <email AT greglondon.com> wrote:
> >> > For my particular usage, I could see a business model
> >> > (a way of making a living) established on copylefting
> >> > works under a Creative Commons license like the GNU GPL,
> >> > ... where one would take advantage of other's reluctance
> >> > to license their own works under the same license.
> >>
> >> That might be an advantage for you, but such a license
> >> would be harmful to the gift economy that created the
> >> work in the first place.
> >
> > Depends on the gift economy. While I would likely not
> > contribute on such terms, MySQL, Sleepycat, and some
> > others have built both successful businesses and
> > successful communities on this very premise.
>
> They have built a successful business on the premise
> of not allowing the work to be aggregated
> with anything that isn't under the same license?
> That is what we were talking about, right?
> I guess I'm a little rusty on the Sleepycat license.
> I didn't realize collective works were such a
> moneymaker.

Sorry, should have read more carefully. In this context, they are
derivative works, not collective works.

> > I'm sure some excellent literature remains to be
> > written on what conditions are necessary for such
> > a plan to succeed as both business and
> > self-sustaining community.
>
> You speak as if there is some yet-undiscovered magical
> license that once revealed people will be able to tap
> into limitless riches creating FLOSS works.

This isn't about creating a new license, but about taking licenses we
have and building communities and businesses that create economic
value while being sustainable. It can be done (is being done
repeatedly), but the mechanics of how to make it work are still poorly
understood and would bear more research.

Luis