Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Sarah Pearson <sarah AT creativecommons.org>]

This is the next discussion prompt relating to one-way compatibility from BY-SA 4.0 to the GPLv3. The focus of this email is effective technological measures (“ETMs”), such as DRM, used to limit access to a licensed work.

BY-SA prohibits application of ETMs by licensees entirely if those measures would prevent others from exercising their rights under the license.

In contrast, the GPL does not explicitly prohibit application of DRM and other ETMs. Instead, it addresses any potential lockdown of licensed works by requiring distribution of source code in a modifiable form. In the software context, this is sufficient to make ETMs moot because a reuser in possession of the source code may freely modify and redistribute the licensed work.

For compatibility purposes, this creates a chance that BY-SA works adapted into GPL-licensed projects could be subject to DRM applied by downstream users who look only at the GPL requirements.

We are looking for input from our community: is this risk of unintended violations of the ETMs clause adequately neutralized by the release of the work in unencumbered, modifiable form?

best,

CC Legal