Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>]

Greg London wrote:
>  Debian's entire argument appears subtly flawed. Here is my full
>  analysis. It's a bit long, but it should be an entirely self
>  contained argument, so you shouldn't have to go read any other
>  emails. [...]

I'm not adding much here, but I have to say, I think this is your best 
presentation so far, Greg.  I think you make the case clearly and 
persuasively.

After reading it, I find I'm compelled to agree with your platform 
monopoly case. It is a "deal breaker" after all.

It's important to realize that what really makes this happen are two 
fine legal points that are absurdly counter-intuitive, but apparently 
are also current US law:

1) The DMCA makes circumventing DRM illegal, and this also includes 
putting a particular DRM wrapper on a file (not just taking it off).

2) The idea that the DRM wrapper is owned by the DRM provider, and may 
not be legally removed even under the permission of the copyright owner 
of the restricted content.

Parallel distribution doesn't solve this problem, and I think that the 
end result would actually be counter to the principles behind the Debian 
DFSG.  Debian should probably be re-thinking their position.

Cheers,
Terry


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