Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Terry Hancock <hancock AT anansispaceworks.com>]

paola.dimaio AT gmail.com wrote:
> Well, I think we can, but I will leave this conversation for another time
> 
> I will simply say that I can use a 'preagreement' option, which means,
> I can license the work under cc, say, if the conditions in the pre
> agreement are met
> 
> objections?

Yes, you can have a pre-agreement which determines the conditions under
which the CC license is invoked. For example, I can write a document
which says that I am releasing a work under the CC-By-NC-SA license, but
also release it under CC-By-SA, "effective Dec 3rd, 2010".

Likewise, I could make an agreement that says I will release under By-SA
once I have raised $1000 in sales. Or on some other condition.

This works because the CC license is not in affect during the duration
of the "pre-agreement".

However, the minute that the CC license comes into effect, all other
restrictions are moot, because the CC license removes them.

If you remove the license statement which makes the CC license the
"entire agreement", then you are no longer using the CC license.

At that point, it is a prosecutable offense to pass the license off as a
CC license (it's "fraud" or possibly just "false advertising"). And
incidentally, it's a trademark violation, because CC has made it quite
clear how its marks can be used.

Of course, if you don't call it a CC license, then it's merely a bad
license. We might try to talk you out of it (licenses like this have
been tried in the past and found wanting -- which is why such clauses
are not part of today's CC licenses, nor any "free software" licenses).
But that's your prerogative.

Cheers,
Terry

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