[Foundation-l] Creative Commons CC-BY-SA Draft Statement of Intent

Mon Apr 7 02:53:12 UTC 2008

On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 8:57 PM, Brianna Laugher
<brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 07/04/2008, Pharos <pharosofalexandria at gmail.com> wrote:
>  >  I talked with a young journalist at one of our events in  New York
>  >  this Friday, and this was very much a reason she appreciated
>  >  Wikimedia, because the wonder of free content helps her everyday in
>  >  her job.
>  >
>  >  Imagine the potential attitude of a journalist like that, used to
>  >  interacting with free content on a regular basis, when she has a
>  >  mature journalism career, and maybe a position of editorial authority
>  >  in a few years.
>  >
>  >  Now imagine us telling her free content is over for her, that
>  >  Wikimedia is no longer interested in helping journalists unless they
>  >  fulfill our strict ideological requirements.
>  >
>  >  Then her experience with free content comes to a sudden stop, and the
>  >  whole concept seems like a brief fad that is no longer relevant to her
>  >  carreer.  Do you think she will have the same positive attitude toward
>  >  Wikimedia and free content when she becomes an editor then?
>
>  CC-BY is not going anywhere. Lots of people release content under this
>  license and will continue to do so. Not to mention public domain
>  releases.
>
>  In fact, for contributors who *don't* want a "strong interpretation"
>  of sharealike to apply to their work, if CC-BY-SA is clarified to have
>  this intent, they may switch to make their work available under CC-BY.

I dislike CC-BY for the same reason that others dislike CC-BY.  If I
take a photograph, I want my photograph (and its modifications) to
remain free.

What seems wrong to me is the idea that we require a "purity test" for
re-users, so that I can demand the book that my photograph is
published in is also free.  Now, I think it's a morally right thing
for books to be free.  But maybe I have other moral opinions too.

Maybe I think all books should be free, and refuse my photographs to
any publisher that has -any- non-free books in its catalog.

Or maybe I think printing presses should all have good working
conditions for employees, and would refuse my photographs to
publishers that go against these principles.

These are all ideals that many of us support, but how are they related
to my copyright on my photograph?

And how does tying in purity tests encourage re-use in the real world?

The perfect, we must recognize, can very much be the enemy of the good.

Thanks,
Pharos