Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Francesco Poli <invernomuto AT paranoici.org>]

On Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:04:21 -0700 Kat Walsh wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 3:19 AM, Francesco Poli
> <invernomuto AT paranoici.org> wrote:
[...]
> > Hence, I reiterate: my original recommendation was an explicit one-way
> > conversion clause to GPLv2-or-later, but, if there are concerns about
> > future versions of the GNU GPL (such as the ones raised by drew
> > Roberts), I recommend a conversion clause to GPLv2-or-v3.
> 
> 
> We are not including explicit compatibility clauses in 4.0; instead,
> we're sticking with the approach in 3.0 of maintaining a list external
> to the license.

This is really disappointing...   :-(

> 
> You're right about the potential problems this approach presents, and
> we're aware of them. The downsides of explicit compatibility are that
> the list is settled with the new version, and tied to the versioning
> process--more discussions need to happen in parallel, and no new
> considerations can be made without publishing a new version (even if
> only a minor version).

I am puzzled: first you acknowledge the problems of the external
compatibility list (the problems that I pointed out at the beginning of
this thread), then you claim that an explicit compatibility clause
would have *the downside* of avoiding these problems!
I would call that an *advantage*, not a *downside*...

[...]
> 
> The discussion about the criteria and process for identifying and
> naming compatible licenses will be held on this list after 4.0 is
> published--our goal is that this will be done in such a way that most
> of the potential concerns are addressed or outweighed.

This way, licensors that will adopt CC-by-sa-v4.0 will experience the
uncertainty about *which* other licenses will be declared compatible
*after* they released their works.
That is to say, exactly the problem I pointed out at the beginning of
this thread.    :-(


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