Development of Creative Commons licenses

[James Grimmelmann <james AT grimmelmann.net>]

Francisco and I had noticed, in our discussion about the text of the 
proposed wording changes to the anti-DRM clauses, that there were some 
differences betewen the U.S. and unported versions.  Based on some 
off-list discussions and some research, I can report two important things:

First, the lack of the word "effective" from the U.S. version (which 
says "technological measures" where the unported version says "effective 
technological measures") reflects the different terms used in the DMCA 
and in the WIPO treaties (the Copyright Treaty (WCT) and Performers and 
Phonograms Treaty (WPPT)).  This makes sense.  The generic/unported 
license tracks the terminology used by the major international treaties 
on the issue.  The U.S. version tracks U.S. law. The difference is not 
otherwise significant, and I expect that the two versions will be 
applied identically.

Second, the proposed U.S. license and the proposed unported license use 
many different phrasings to talk about the rights protected by the 
anti-DRM clause.  I don't think that there is any intended semantic 
difference among the various phrases, which makes the divergence surprising.

U.S. 4.a:
    "to exercise of the rights granted to that recipient under the 
terms of the License"
   "to exercise the right granted to them under the License"

U.S. 4.b:
   "to exercise of the rights granted under the License"
   "to exercise the rights granted to them under the terms of the License"

Unported 4.a:
   "to exercise the rights granted to that recipient under the terms of 
the License"
   "to exercise their rights granted under the License"

Unported 4.b:
   "to exercise of the rights granted under the license"
   "to exercise their rights granted under the License"


A -- Three of the phrases insert "of" after "exercise," which seems like 
a drafting error.
B -- The U.S. license once uses "right" instead of "rights," which also 
seems like a drafting error in context.
C -- Each license uses "to that recipient" once; two of the U.S. phrases 
use "to them" instead; the remaining four omit this phrase.  There is no 
clear pattern to which use which.
D -- Three of the phrases say "under the terms of the License;" the 
remaining five say "under the License."  There is again no clear pattern 
as to which use which.


These discrepancies have been brought to Mia's attention and CC will be 
giving the exact wording another very close look.

James