Development of Creative Commons licenses

[James Grimmelmann <james AT grimmelmann.net>]

Greg London wrote:
> Without any DRM clause of any kind, ShareAlike has a loophole
> that allows DRM Dave to use the work without sharing the work
> on his platform. Only he can distribute works on his platform.
> Only he can create derivatives on his platform.

This is true.  But the same is true if DRM Dave makes snow globes that 
play a CC-licensed song.  Nobody else can put derivatives (or anything 
at all) on this sort of snow globe--simply because Dave is the one with 
the manufacturing plant. Why is this not a platform monopoly of this 
troubling sort?

> The problem is not that the content is not available in a
> non-DRM version. CC-SA versions of the works are available
> already from ShareAlike-Sam.
>
> The problem is that a DRM-Only platform can take CC-SA works
> and treat them as proprietary forks on that platform.
> The works are no longer treated as copyleft works.

The works are copyleft to the extent anyone is free to take them, copy 
them, modify them, and distribute them by starting from the parallel 
version.  The only thing they are not able to do in practice is to place 
 their own copies or derivative works back onto the particular DRMed 
platform.  Or is there something else you think they are not free to do?

> Now, we can argue whether parallel distribution adds rights
> that weren't there before or not. But it's irrelevant.
> It adds a minor right, but doesn't solve the problem of
> a DRM=only hardware platform using the works as if they
> were no longer ShareAlike on that hardware platform.

I do not think that your "ShareAlike on that hardware platform" is a 
meaningful concept.  You seem to be taking the word "alike" too 
literally, to assume that everyone who encounters a work must have the 
exact same abilities in practice.  That is not how the ShareAlike 
license works, and it is not, as I take it, the point of having a 
ShareAlike term.  The point of such a term is to ensure that anyone who 
encounters the work or derivatives made from it (or from derivatives, 
and so on) continues to have essential freedoms to use, modify, and 
redistribute the work.

James