Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Henri Sivonen <hsivonen AT iki.fi>]

On Oct 9, 2006, at 23:15, Rob Myers wrote:

> NC doesn't ensure that you make money from your work, it simply  
> prevents
> other people from doing so.

Exactly. NC is about people being concerned about other people making  
money. What they should be concerned about is making money themselves.

FWIW, every time I have had income from writing software, I have  
stood on the shoulders of Free Software authors (regardless of  
whether the software I have written has been Free or proprietary--I  
have written both). If everyone else had been busy ensuring that no  
one else makes money, I couldn't have made money that way. And not  
being able to make money would have been unfortunate for me--and  
that's something that I care and should care about. Someone else  
might make money, too. Good for them.

Free Software is not anti-business as is sometimes claimed. NC,  
however, is. If the licensor hasn't figured out a business model or  
isn't even looking for one, NC prevents others from building business  
on what is potential usefulness for others but unused surplus for the  
licensor--or any attempt degenerates to the permission culture.

> With BY-SA you can at least exploit downstream derivative work.  
> This may
> be more protection than NC-SA, as people will understand that they  
> have
> to give back.

CC-by-sa is also better for you in the sense that if someone else  
modifies your work, his/her NC doesn't take away *your* possibility  
of making money if you figure out a business model. With CC-by-nc-sa,  
once other have had their input, *you* can't do business even if a  
business model was handed to you on a silver platter.

--
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen AT iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/