Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Mia Garlick <mia AT creativecommons.org>]

On Feb 10, 2007, at 5:11 AM, drew Roberts wrote:

[cut]

> > I would hope that, in the cases where CC decides to post a license as
> > "compatible", that there is a reciprocal statement being made by the
> > parties controlling that other license.
>
> I thought I just read that in the draft Mia posted.
>
> > From Definitions:
>
> (b) "Creative Commons Compatible License" means a license that is  
> listed at
>     http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses that: (i) has  
> been approved
>     by Creative Commons as being essentially equivalent to this  
> License,
>     including without limitation because that license contains  
> terms that have
>     the same purpose, meaning and effect as the License Elements of  
> this
>     License; and, (ii) explicitly permits the relicensing of  
> derivatives of
> works
>     made available under that license under this License.
>
> See (ii)? Now presumably (ii) is redundant in the license itself  
> except as a
> safeguard? Surely CC will not list it as approved if it does not do  
> so. Or is
> CC going to play games with us and put licenses there as approved  
> but we
> can't actually use them because they don't meet (ii)?
>
> Actually Mia, does this need to be fixed?
>
> Thinking further, I think it does need fixing. Here is my suggested  
> rewording:
>
> (b) "Creative Commons Compatible License" means a license that is  
> listed at
>     http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses that has been  
> approved
>     by Creative Commons as being essentially equivalent to this  
> License,
>     including without limitation because that license contains  
> terms that have
>     the same purpose, meaning and effect as the License Elements of  
> this
>     License. Note: Creative Commons will not approve such a license  
> unless
>     it explicitly permits the relicensing of derivatives of works made
>     available under that license under this License.

a license will not be deemed compatible unless it is reciprocal in  
recognizing and enabling compatibility.  i don't think one can  
include a "Note" in a legal definition.  would this rephrasing allay  
concern?

""Creative Commons Compatible License" means a license that is listed  
at http://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses thathas been  
approved by Creative Commons as being essentially equivalent to this  
License, including without limitation because that license: (i)   
contains terms that have the same purpose, meaning and effect as the  
License Elements of this License; and, (ii) explicitly permits the  
relicensing of derivatives of works made available under that license  
under this License."