Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Evan Prodromou <evan AT prodromou.name>]

On Sat, 2006-30-09 at 20:51 -0400, drew Roberts wrote:
> > Imagine, if you will, DRM Dave's Web site, with a section for
> > unencumbered works that can be either played as-is or easily converted
> > to play on _many_other_ platforms _but_not_his_own_. In other words,
> > he's hosting files for Works that his customers can't play. His market
> > advantage over his competitors is nil -- in fact, he's got a
> > disadvantage, since people can _play_ all the CC-SA music available on
> > his platform somewhere else, _and_do_more_with_it_too_.
> 
> But all of the non-CC works on his site are unavailable anywhere else and 
> can 
> only play on his player. And those ones are way more popular than the CC 
> ones.

But Creative Commons doesn't have any control over those other works.
They're not even in the field of discussion right now. As you said,
they're way more popular than CC ones, and keeping CC ones off his
platform won't be a big hit for him.

> > Why is this sad-sack figure with the bullet-hole through his foot an
> > unacceptable threat to our Freedom?
> 
> Sort of like MS can't play ogg files out of the box? And why should that 
> be? 
> (You have to squint just right to see this point.)

Yeah, I don't see it. If your point is that manufacturers of DRM-only
platforms are going to try to lock out CC-licensed works, well, I'd
agree that's a bad thing. We should try to prevent it, and having an
anti-DRM clause in the licenses isn't the best way to do that.

> do you really not see where this can go? (I will be generous and assume you 
> don't.)
> 
> 1. Network effects.
> 2. Volume cost reduction effects.
> 3. Laws.
> 4. Corporate mergers / monopolies.
> 5. Patents / monopolies.
> 6. All the big copyright holders insist that they will only license content 
> to 
> play on players that only play "protected" files and refuse to play 
> non-protected files.
> 
> I feel like I could go on and on.

All I'm hearing is that DRM is making great inroads. I agree. Locking
ourselves out of the game just to be sniffy is a bad idea. Using the
platforms but preserving users' rights is the best way to deal with this
situation.

~Evan