Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Karl Ebener <myonlyb AT vollbio.de>]

Hi Javier,

> > According to what you write above, it will apply within Spain, whether
> > the license mentions it or not (it isn't legal to remove this right).
> >
> > But if the clause is included in the CC license, then you enforce this
> > oddity of European law onto Americans as well. Normally we (in the US)
> > do not recognize the idea of "moral rights" in a work (which is part of
> > our general theory that copyright is not a 'natural' right, but rather a
> > state-granted monopoly on an otherwise free activity -- copying
> > information).
> >     
>
> I like the USian view, and generally I have been against including any
> reference to moral rights in the licenses. But I have changed my mind, and
> now I think moral rights should be mentioned... in order to circumvent them.
>   
of course, your idea to pseudo-waiver is nice, as it would make people 
think about their moral rights and most likely prevent many of authors 
to use them.
Still, I disagree. It is right, that lawyers take clauses into general 
terms and conditions of which they know that they are void. 
Nevertheless, in my personal opinion, willingly adding void clauses 
"weakens" a contract in general.
This "weakness" is a big problem of the GPL and I find it very 
consistent that the CC-licenses are not only translated but also adapted 
to national laws. This feature makes them much stronger (as well as seen 
by law as morally!) and thus more enforceable if a licensee does not 
comply with the terms of the license (e.g. in Germany once again Skype 
and GPL (just google it) - German courts were very generous with the 
GPL, especially regarding the language.).

Cheers,
Karl