[Foundation-l] Licensing interim update

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Robert Rohde wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:39 PM, Chad <innocentkiller at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> I never said anything about disregarding the law. I don't give a rat's
>> ass *how* I'm attributed, as long as I'm not forgotten for the work I've
>> done. If there's a legal requirement for a certain method and/or
>> degree of attribution, then obviously that takes precedence over
>> personal preferences.
>>
>> You say the license says one thing. Other people say it doesn't. It's
>> obviously a very grey area (if it was black and white, we wouldn't be
>> having this debate). My only point was to solicit wider feedback, not
>> have a poll to overrule legal requirements.
>>     
>
> I would like to add that if the specific language of the license is
> making use overly burdensome and interfering with the free content
> goals of the license, then that is an excellent point for requesting
> that CC make modifications in the next version of their license.  As
> it is, thoughtful people already disagree about what "reasonable"
> implies and what are acceptable ways to "provide" attribution.
>
> Given the significance of sites like Wikipedia to the free content
> movement, I would not be surprised to see the next generation of CC
> licenses make explicit provisions for massive multi-author
> collaborative works.
>   

I think I can subscribe to nearly every letter, word and
punctuation mark of what Robert Rohde wrote here, but
I would add some observations.

I find it absolutely difficult for CC to make any explicit
provisions for massive multi-author collaborative works
that would compartmentalize those works to only be
usable within a selected set of jurisdictions, and not
within a broad range of jurisdictions with their own very
specific flavours of legal frameworks. Anything that even
attempted to do that, would be a real fracture point.

But as long as that shoal is avoided, of course every
provision should be made to accommodate improvements
that streamline the methods, so that reusers know how
to most easily comply with the license.


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen