Development of Creative Commons licenses

[James Grimmelmann <james AT grimmelmann.net>]

Lucas Gonze wrote:
> On 4/6/07, Eric Garner <ejgarner AT yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Jammin' Jenny is not a lawyer so she
>> doesn't understand the wide-ranging implications of
>> using the NC license. When she clicks that radio
>> button she's probably thinking, "Hell no, I don't want
>> some dude making money by selling MY music!" What she
>> doesn't realize, though, is that she's effectively
>> making her music off-limits to the honest webcaster
>> who can help her music get heard, too.
> 
> But that's a communication problem, not a license problem.  The thing
> to do is help Jenny learn how to use free licenses.
> 
> Programmers go through this learning process too.    When to use a
> BSD, GPL, or LGPL license?
> 
> Requiring learning is OK.  People can do this.
> 
> That's especially true with the NC licenses, which a whole generation
> of creators are exploring by doing the wrong thing.  Let them go
> wrong.  They will discover that NC work disappears into a dead zone,
> while SA becomes part of a thriving ecosystem, and the next time
> around they will know.
> 
> The best thing we can do to help Jamming Jenny is not pander to her
> misunderstanding.

In your description of Jamming Jenny, she has two misunderstandings:
(1) That an NC license actually works the way she thinks it does.  (In
reality, NC is more restrictive than she thinks.)
(2) That she wants the license she chooses to work the way that she
thinks an NC license does.  (She would be better off with an SA license.)

There are good reasons not to change the licenses simply because some
licensors have misunderstandings (1) and (2).  But I would prefer not to
let our feelings about (2) get in the way of a discussion about what to
do about (1), and vice versa.

James