Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>]

Benj. Mako Hill wrote:
> <quote who="Terry Hancock" date="Mon, Dec 04, 2006 at 11:19:12PM -0600">
>>Nic Suzor wrote:
>>>On the other hand, there are many commercial systems like the
>>>PlayStation or the XBox, where I would love to see an independent
>>>developer use CC-licensed works and free software to create a
>>>release title, and then raise some funding to obtain the
>>>certification required to release.
>>
>>AFAIK, it is possible to do this now, without any changes to the
>>license terms, and you do not need to pay for certification. It just
>>needs to run without the proprietary support libraries (e.g. using the
>>Linux ports to those platforms), and of course, you probably can't use
>>the trademarked certification marks from the company.
> 
> The Linux ports to the machines mentioned above require modifying the
> machines. To modify a modern PSP to play "home brew" you need to find
> version of a game with an exploitable bug, overflow a buffer, downgrade
> firmware and more. Other machines have, at least in recent history,
> required soldering.

Then what you want is the ability to sell games which play directly on
these systems using the approved keys and distribution channels?

You can do that now. You just have to get permission from the creators
of the work you want to use. Too much trouble? No, because you already
have the sunk cost of the DRM/proprietary distribution channel to start
with.

It is no more difficult to sell a free work this way than to sell a
proprietary work for the platform. And your difficulty can be paid off
with profits, because you can charge copyright-monopoly-based prices for
the result (which means its also fair to pay your contributors).

Meanwhile, free/home-brew platforms are becoming significant enough that
major DRM-loving producers like Sony are now providing the means to
install Linux on their equipment without all that hassle. So that means
we're winning. Making platforms like the ones you describe creates a
problem for the manufacturer and fails to enforce their DRM anyway. So
they are realizing that they need to allow free content on their platforms.

Giving up *now* would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock AT AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com