[CCD] considering a change to derivative works applicability

Chad Perrin perrin at apotheon.com
Thu Jun 21 07:07:30 MDT 2007


In relation to recent musings about the effectiveness of license terms in
bringing about a change in the way people think about copyright, I have
been revisiting the matter of license heritability characteristics.
Under the section labeled "DEFINITIONS" in the current form of the
license, there is a definition for purposes of the CCD CopyWrite license
of the term "Derivative Work".  It is used elsewhere in the license, most
relevantly in the section labeled "DISTRIBUTION".

I'm currently a bit torn on the matter of whether to aim more toward a
"viral" sort of inheritance characteristic similar to the GPL's and a
more flexible form such as that of the BSD license.  Recent consideration
of the practical effects of such license terms on the market penetration
of a license, as a means of reaching as many people as possible, has led
me to lean more toward a BSD-like approach to license heritability.

In essence, the way the BSD license works in this regard, is simplicity
itself:
  1. BSD licensed code will always be BSD licensed code.
  2. Modifications to BSD licensed code will also be BSD licensed code.
  3. A larger work need not actually be distributed under the BSD
  license, even if it includes BSD licensed code in such a manner that
  separating the parts destroys the usefulness of the non-BSD licensed
  code.

I'm also considering coining the term "copyfree" as an alternative to
"copyright" and "copyleft", which would likely be especially appropriate
to the CCD License if I swung it more toward the BSD license model of
inheritance.  Feedback is desired.  Comments and questions are welcome.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
John W. Russell: "People point. Sometimes that's just easier. They also use
words. Sometimes that's just easier. For the same reasons that pointing has
not made words obsolete, there will always be command lines."



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