Also it would be very important for wikipedia to
provide its own
license and to allow it to evolve. As a policy matter, I don't
believe it's really safe to leave your legal needs within the
hands of others like we did with the GNU/FDL (and it would be the
same problem with CC).
I'm not sure that a wholly new license, especially one unique to
Wikipedia, is such a good idea. In the software world, there are
already many complaints about the existence of too many "open
source" licenses. The problem may not be quite as great outside of
software, but even sorting through just the options available from
Creative Commons can be a little challenging, and they heard some
concerns about license proliferation when announcing their new CC-
Wiki license (Lessig says it's different "brand" rather than a
different license).
I think it would be better for us to focus on figuring out how to
revise the GFDL, including working up draft proposals ourselves as
appropriate. While it's occasionally suggested that there are
ongoing talks with FSF and/or CC, perhaps we sometimes expect
there's more going on than there really is. Jimbo would hardly have
the time to be focusing on these issues constantly, and it's not
his field of expertise (the same is true of Richard Stallman, for
that matter). Actually generating ideas for them to consider might
yield more results.
However, I think branching out completely on our own would require
too great an investment of resources. Achieving absolute
independence is an appealing sentiment, but the FSF and CC have
experience and understanding in this area that would be valuable
for us to draw upon. Working with other organizations on these
issues also contributes to being a responsible member of the larger
free-software/content community.
Well, I am not afraid of being faced with a great number of licenses,
but I am afraid of poorly designed ones. Except that, I agree with
you, there is no need to "fork" from other licensors but we should be
really become more involved in the processes. Either with CC or with
the FSF.