35 Principles of Free and Commons Access Works << Prev Next >>
by: ColonelZen	IP: 101.146	rated: 0-0	posted: 2008-08-28 23:09:52
Originally at http://www.ip-wars.net/story/2005/1/3/92651/15607 Principles of Free and Commons Access Works by T. W. Zellers     At the instigation of copyrights_r_fun on CKX, I began thinking about what we mean generally as opposed to just software when we talk about Free and Open.  The primary baseline for such thought is the GPL since it has generated a thriving ecosystem of software.  Now, with web logs and other structured materials as well as plain text being publishable by anyone the time has come to consider "Free and Open" principles in a wider context.  I think I've managed to distill the "principles of F/CA" fairly well, coining F/CA as "Free and Commons Access" for a work product as separate from F/OSS as Free and Open Source Software. As I see them the principles are: Except for the author (or copyright holder of a contractually created or for hire work) and any specific alternately licensed designee, all F/CA works shall be equally available to everyone. Everyone shall be free to use an F/CA work in whole or in part in any way which does not reduce or encumber the rights of others to that work. If the method of production is opaque, the means of production of a work must be distributed on the same terms as the final work product. If a new work product incorporates part of another F/CA work it shall identify that antecedant work, the parts of the new work from which are derived from it, and where not obvious provide means of locating that original work. Any distributor of a new work product incorporating part of another F/CA work shall distribute the antecedant components on the same terms that the new work author received rights to them. Any new work incorporating any part of another F/CA work product must be distributed on F/CA terms meeting or exceeding F/CA compliancy of the most F/CA compliant antecedant component of the new work. Or the short form:     1) Equal Access     2) Freedom of Use     3) Transparency     4) Attribution.     5) Redistribution     6) Propogation     As the discussion arose around Groklaw, it is fair to mention that it meets on criteria one, and three is not really applicable.  PJ's articles, CCL'd, meet Access, Use and Redistribution, and seem to meet Attribution where required.     The GPL is of course the primary vehicle from which these were derived, but even the GPL does not explicitly assert equal access.  Equality of access is presumed to derive from the terms of redistribution, and in most cases does, but there is nothing else guaranteeing it.     Other licenses meet some but not all of these terms.  I separated Redistribution and Propogation and added Attribution upon contemplation of the BSD license.  It is an odd case in terms of F/OSS; it didn't meet the Redistribution principle but the copyright notice clause (when still in effect) partially met the Attribution criteria.     Creative Commons licenses in various flavors appear to meet to varying degrees Access, Use, Attribution, and Redistribution, and Transparency is not generally applicable. and the Share-Alike license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ (under which this work is distributed), seems to meet the Propogation requirement.  The ccl/sa appears to be the most F/CA compliant license for text material...  which is why it was chosen for this site.     The fundamental thought of F/CA, of course, is to expand the base of information and information product upon which others may build in the future.  I hope this enumeration of principles aids in discussion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005 by T. W. Zellers.  This work is made available under the Creative Commons Share-Alike license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.