Development of Creative Commons licenses

[James Grimmelmann <james AT grimmelmann.net>]

Jonathon Blake wrote:
> James wrote:
>
> > So too is the practice of saying "a Creative Commons license" without
> saying which one.
>
> My working definition is that CC by itself explicitly means the
> CC-NC-ND 2.0 licence.
>
> The most restrictive, not the most popular. [The most popular being
> CC-NC 2.5 variants.]

Yes . . . and "Creative Commons license" by itself could also mean the 
Sampling license, which in many ways is even more restrictive.  With 
Sampling and NC-ND on the table, there is no use (in excess of the 
copyright baseline) that is guaranteed by all Creative Commons licenses. 
 Skepticism with a tinge of mistrust is the attitude to take until 
someone tells you *which* license is involved.  And "Creative 
Commons-like license" is a sign to be very cautious indeed.

James