Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Rob Myers <rob AT robmyers.org>]

Henri Sivonen wrote:

> I don't think common sense suggests audio players that are TPM-only  
> and the user of the device cannot apply TPM.

IIRC the current wording of the 3.0 licence appears to allow personal 
addition of DRM. As with the GPL 3 drafts, it is distribution that is 
not allowed.

Mia raises the issue of who is actually allowed to add DRM in the 
responses to the comments on the draft though.

The ability to add DRM is largely irrelevant because none of the devices 
we have discussed are TPM-only. You can get Linux on your iPod and your 
PS3, and your PSP and unadulterated iPod will play non-DRM media. We 
cannot therefore plead for DRM in the name of users of these systems.

For the Garmin example, there are other GPS systems available and these 
would be a better choice if Garmin went DRM (they have not, and their 
support of open formats is a selling point). Garmin also have a 
developer community who could do what the iPodLinux and Rockbox projects 
have done for the iPod: make a free replacement for the proprietary 
system software that can handle free formats. And the 3.0 draft would 
not prevent you adding DRM yourself if Garmin allowed.

So none of this requires support for DRM. The Draft 3.0 license without 
the dual distribution clause has more than enough support for DRM, more 
support than anyone actually needs.

- Rob.