On 07/16/2013 09:55 AM, Wendy Seltzer wrote:
On 07/15/2013 01:43 PM, Anne van Kesteren wrote:
Hi,
I didn't realize I said to Robin that CC-BY was okay. I should have
checked with a lawyer or at least the CC FAQ before saying anything of
the sort. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ccby makes it
pretty clear why it's not acceptable to me. My apologies for making it
appear otherwise.
Hi Anne,
The GNU license list says only that the two licenses are not compatible,
meaning one can't simply re-license CC-BY material under GPL. It doesn't
say that both aren't usable in the same manner; I think they are.
I understand the GPL incompatibility to be that CC-BY does not permit
sub-licensing. However, W3C in its Process and document license commits
to making technical reports available free of charge to the general
public under its document license in perpetuity. [1] Therefore, every
would-be user of the code gets a license directly from W3C, and does not
need a sub-license.
Does this help?
I believe that the relevant use cases are #5 and #6 as listed here:
http://www.w3.org/2011/03/html-license-options.html#usecases
At the moment, the FSF is not alone in declaring CC-BY incompatible with
their license, the Mozilla Foundation has come to a similar conclusion:
http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/license-policy.html
The ASF hasn't concluded its analysis, but seems likely to agree:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LEGAL-167
Some of the clauses in the CC-BY license cause trouble not only for
"Free" Software Vendors, but commercial/proprietary vendors alike.
Examples:
* You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that restrict the
terms of this License or the ability of a recipient of the Work to
exercise the rights granted to that recipient under the terms of the
License.
* You may not sublicense the Work.
* You may not impose any technological measures on the Work that
restrict the ability of a recipient of the Work from You to exercise
the rights granted to that recipient under the terms of the License.
Finally, I'll note that the authors of the CC-BY license themselves
don't recommend this license for software:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Can_I_apply_a_Creative_Commons_license_to_software.3F
--Wendy
[1] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/process.html#dissemination
Kind regards,
--
http://annevankesteren.nl/
- Sam Ruby
