Creative Commons: GPL-Copyleft versus Share Alike

[Ward Vandewege]

On Wed, Mar 19, 2003 at 11:11:00AM +0000, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> > I think CC and the FSF are complementary in the way that CC is much more
> > accessible to the masses.
> 
> More accessible yes, but I don't think the CC licenses would offer as
> much protection for software as the GPL does.

Hmmm. Interesting. I guess you are right. From the CC FAQ at
http://creativecommons.org/faq:

  Right now we don't plan to get involved in software licensing at all.
  Instead, we'll concentrate on scholarship, film, literature, music,
  photography, and other kinds of creative works.

> > >Ultimately you can do what you like, but I
> > >think you could run into problems if there are any conflicting terms in
> > >either of the licenses.
> 
> The CC person appears to be wrong in this case.  Dual licensing cannot
> cause such "conflicts".  If you dual license, the receiver of the item
> can choose to use it under the terms of either license.  Could you let
> me know who said this so that I can clear this up?

Well, she did put the IANAL disclaimer first. And now it is time for me to be
embarrased, since my question to her was:

>I would like to cover my writings under your BY-SA license and the GDL
>(without invariant sections), and give people the option of licensing
>derivative works under either the BY-SA license or the GDL (without 
>invariant sections) or both. Can I do this?

As you can see, not about software but about non-software - and comparing the
CC licenses with the GNU Documentation License, not the GPL.

So I don't think there is much need to clear up things.

> I'd strongly suggest you consider not dual licensing the GPL and a
> CC license.  Using a CC license will leave your software far more
> open to exploitation.

Point taken. I'll stick with the GPL for software. For all the rest
(writings, photos, etc) I think I'll go with the CC licenses.

Bye for now,
Ward.

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