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[Jonathan Mitchell <website3 AT jonathanmitchell.info>]

This is the latest exchange of messages between Christiane Asschenfeldt of
International Creative Commons and myself. As Damien Tambini agreed some
time ago that he would copy Professor MacQueen and I in on further messages
between his team and ICC, and as I have had no such messages, I have to
assume that she is doing this entirely off her own bat without any input
from the Oxford team- she has certainly had none from here that supports her
decision.

My apologies to English readers for once more banging on about this, but
this has the capability of damaging next Wednesday's launch for no benefit
whatsoever and thus affecting CC in England as well.

Jonathan Mitchell

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jonathan Mitchell <jonathanmitchell AT mac.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:12:42 +0000
To: Christiane Asschenfeldt <christiane AT creativecommons.org>
Cc: <roland AT creativecommons.org>
Subject: Re: CC Scotland

I feel like tearing my hair out! Do you and the Californians genuinely have
no understanding that Scotland is a different jurisdiction and indeed is a
different national culture, or of the harm you are potentially doing to
goodwill? Think:-

1. How could it seriously be suggested that a licence which has been
developed for one jurisdiction, England and Wales, and which confers
exclusive jurisdiction on the courts of England and Wales, could be put
forward for use in another jurisdiction, Scotland? The draft licence worked
up in Oxford states:
> This Licence shall be governed by the law of England and Wales and the 
> parties
> irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England 
> and
> Wales.
What this means is that if anyone in Scotland used this (which they won't)
they would be regulated by the laws and courts of the next-door country!
The BBC can use such a license, because it is a single organisation based in
the English jurisdiction. Individuals in Scotland can't. So your takeup in
Scotland will be zero.

2. The CC-EW team have agreed. On 6 December, Prodromos Tsiavos wrote:
> Jonathan’s point is valid: the CC licences that explicitly refer to the
> jurisdiction of England and Wales will be henceforth called CC-EW. I have 
> made
> the respective changes and am attaching the relevant draft. I will also 
> raise
> the issue during the phone conference on the 8th of December and since the 
> iCC
> seem to be of the same opinion, we should consider the issue resolved
So what you propose goes back on a consensus decision among English and
Scottish participants.

3. You cannot publicise such a license in Scotland or hope that it will
receive anything other than justified criticism, when if you were to release
it as what it is, an EW license, there would be no such criticism. This is
totally unnecessary. In fact it is quite barmy.

Would you like to telephone me to discuss this some time this weekend before
your egg hits the fan? Meanwhile I will copy this exchange (I have not
copied any previous correspondence) to the mailing list. The English
participants have also a right to know of these foolish decisions.

Jonathan
--
Jonathan Mitchell QC

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> From: Christiane Asschenfeldt <christiane AT creativecommons.org>
> Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:29:54 -0800
> To: jonathanmitchell AT mac.com
> Cc: roland AT creativecommons.org, christiane AT creativecommons.org
> Subject: CC Scotland
> 
> Dear Jonathan, 
> 
> thanks again for writing, and for your most valuable contribution to the
> Creative Commons project. We appreciate your involvement very much.
> 
> The first deadline - which was set for the UK as a whole - is on January
> 19th. After due reflection and discussion, in Berlin and California, it
> looks as if we have to stick to the original schedule for the moment and
> come up with a single UK licence for this date, i.e. one licence that
> would include all of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. One
> among many reasons for this is our collaboration with the BBC under one
> single umbrella.
> 
> However, as this is only the next mile stone, and as the licences will
> soon be revised, we would love to be able to work with you on a Scottish
> version in the weeks to come. We envisage publication of such a specific
> version by March or April.
> 
> We shall be in touch in due course to incorporate your recent comments.
> 
> Best, Christiane
> 

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