On 05/04/2008, SlimVirgin slimvirgin@gmail.com wrote:
Sorry to be dense, but could someone explain the significance of this? What does the new development allow or prevent that wasn't allowed or prevented before?
The development of the Statement of Intent is the first item on the "CC-BY-SA migration checklist" developed by Erik in December last year. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-December/035677.html
This checklist came out of weeks (months?) of copious discussion after the idea of "equalising" GFDL and CC-BY-SA was floated. The checklist is a summary of what needs to happen to appease concerns raised about the idea, I think.
Interestingly the last point on the checklist has already occurred (well actually, part of it). The point was:
Some improvements to the CC-BY-SA "frontpage" which includes the
license summary. In addition to any clarifications that might be desirable, I've discussed with Larry before the possibility of clearly labeling CC-BY-SA as a "libre" license, in accordance with the definition at freedomdefined.org -- he has expressed support for this idea. <<< The text hasn't changed, but there is a freedomdefined.org "seal of approval" on the -PD -BY and -BY-SA licenses. Announcement http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8051 Implementation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Anyway, as to why a "Statement of intent" was considered important in the first place, I think it is/was because the GFDL has a "preamble" which performs a similar function. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html Given that the license guardians can change the terms of future licenses, and these licenses are used with a "...or any later version" clause, a statement of intent helps ease concerns that the guardians may change the terms in a later version, in a way that current licensors would not approve of.
cheers Brianna