Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Mike Linksvayer <ml AT creativecommons.org>]

I encourage everyone eager to weigh in on how DRM will be addressed in
4.0 to look at 
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Technical_protection_measures
and make sure your perspective is reflected there.

I had meant to eventually kick off a discussion about DRM and 4.0 with
detailed background, but since it has been brought up, here's some
quick things I think are worth considering:

(1) DRM prohibition=non-free is an old argument, didn't seem the
majority opinion last times discussed. Personally, I see it as similar
to copyleft or source requirements -- perceived as onerous by some,
but a strategic option (ie sometimes will be effective and appropriate
measure, other times not) for protecting freedom. But this is probably
the wrong list to rehash that ... cc-community or elsewhere. However,
eliminating any doubt would be a minor benefit of handling DRM some
way other than prohibition in 4.0.

(2) How has the DRM prohibition played out in CC licenses <= 3.0? I
have not heard of any compliance efforts around that clause, and I'd
guess it is regularly violated in things like ebooks and "apps".
Investigation of the technical details of some of these cases would be
useful.

(3) Given (2) I wonder whether copying GPLv3's approach of permitting
circumvention would not be more powerful in giving users freedom --
obviating (1) and need for compliance. Side benefit would be better
alignment with terms of non-CC licenses. The scope and effectiveness
of this approach needs to be thoroughly vetted. See the wiki link
above for the language.

Also see discussion last month at
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/cc-community/2011-December/thread.html#6559

Mike