(As a side note, I sent an email to COSTP people, and hope that they'll be in touch soon. It looks to me -- from their website -- that they just have an idea, and that nothing has actually been _done_ yet. I hope that they are open to help from us, and to helping us.)

Karl Wick wrote:

Did you answer your own question about the California Open Source Textbook licenses ?

Yes, but I'm glad you brought it up to the list.

Here is text I pulled from their site: "COSTP intends to use Creative Commons licenses for selected content. Creative Commons licenses allow creators to let the public to copy and distribute their work, but only on certain conditions, and while retaining their copyright."

I'm glad to see that they are using Creative Commons licenses, since many (though not all) of those licenses meet the GNU requirement for "freedom": http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html

This page has not been updated to include the creative commons licenses, so it's just my opinion, but I think, based on what Larry Lessig has told me, that Attribution-Share Alike is the closest in spirit to the GNU FDL, and that things licensed under Attribution (without the 'Share Alike' proviso) can actually be relicensed under the GNU FDL by distributors.

One of the things that I really like about their project, and one thing that will make their job easier, is the idea of following a particular set of content standards. Probably if they had enough labor available to do it, they should follow multiple state standards, because I can think of no really good reason for them to isolate their project to the state of California.

Except, their website talks about the potential cost savings to the state, so perhaps the reason for their focus has something to do with trying to get some grant money from the state of California.

--Jimbo