[Foundation-l] Harmonization: One license or two?

Robert Rohde rarohde at gmail.com
Sun Dec 2 17:04:08 UTC 2007


Okay, so there is an agreement in principle to harmonize the GFDL's version
of copyleft and that of CC-BY-SA.

Does that mean there will be two licenses, i.e. both a FSF license and CC
license that reference each other and say they are interchangeable but still
have different text and sponsorship?  OR  Does that mean that the FSF and CC
plan to jointly write a single new license so that there is truly a uniting
of both flavors of copyleft under a single document?

I realized this morning that I was assuming the former, i.e. two separate
but equal licenses offering themselves as interchangeable; however, some
other Wikipedians read the same announcements and assumed the latter, i.e.
foretelling the creation of a new unified license that both parties must
agree to.

At face value, creating a single united document seems obviously preferable
in order to avoid confusion and possible conflicting interpretations, but it
is not clear to me that creating a single license is actually the
intention.  The text on compatible licenses already embedded in
CC-BY-SA 3.0seems to strongly suggest that CC has envisioned a future
world of
independent but interchangeable licenses.

Can anyone comment with surety which scenario is being worked towards?

-Robert A. Rohde


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