Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>]

Mia Garlick wrote:
>  this is not a productive line of ongoing discussion.

*Smile* when you try to suppress the democratic process by squashing 
dissent under the iron boot of the Creative Commons ruling junta. ;-D

Seriously, I think it *is* productive, because I still don't buy your 
argument.

Part of the problem, of course, is that the DMCA anti-circumvention is 
*fundamentally* absurd: it's about outlawing wirecutters instead of 
outlawing fence-cutting.  And that's just stupid.  But even if you were 
going to write such a law (ironically, I think we still have a law like 
that on the books somewhere -- or so various trivia books claim), it 
will be pretty obvious that there are certain exceptions to it (*I* 
interpret the clause in question as a codification of those obvious 
exceptions). Obviously, you needed wire cutters to put the fence up in 
the first place, as well as to move or cut a fence you have a legitimate 
right to move.

Clearly, if I then take the same wire cutters and cut my neighbors' 
fence, I'm going to be in violation -- but that's a different matter.

What we're asking for, essentially, is a license that says "I'll let you 
use this pasture of mine. I'll even let you put a fence around it. But 
you have to promise to let anyone cut that fence in order to get to the 
pasture".

This may make it rather pointless to put a fence up in the first place 
(good!), but if there's some technical reason why a fence must be put up 
(e.g. to keep the cows in during normal use, or because there's a county 
ordinance that says 'all pastures must be fenced'), then he can keep his 
promises to both me and the county, while still promising the access 
that I insist on, and not having the cows wander.

This allows pastures to remain free, even in counties where fence 
ordinances are piling up.

--
Terry Hancock (hancock AT AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com