[OSGeo-Edu] Re: [Aust-NZ] Superficial review of copyright issues related to collection and publication of education material on OSGeo Website (LINK)

[Simon Cropper]

On Tuesday 03 August 2010 1:45:43 pm you wrote:
 
> By using a No-Derivatives license it prevents an author from taking
> your tutorial with Australian datums/data/references and swapping it
> for Ugandan information, but otherwise leaving the workflows the same.
> Or using a different FOSS package to perform the same tasks. Or
> combining several Australian tutorials into a larger work. Or even
> fixing a bug in your original tutorial.

All good points and very valuable additions.

Authors keen to see this happen should probably publish under CC0 or Public 
Domain.

> Yes, they could ask you, and you'd probably say yes - but it just puts
> hurdles in the way, which means less people will even attempt to jump
> over them. If someone did ask, would you spend time to review their
> work? 

Yes, because the work is being attributed back to me. If my name is on it, I 
would want to ensure the work is up to scratch.

For the sake of a few emails (1 to ask, 1 for review and 1 final) I argue that 
the work someone would take to contact me and get my approval would be minimal 
compared to changing the document. 

> In the end though, you're the author and it's your work to license
> however you want. Thanks for writing! :)

Yep, I know but the attribution-no attribution / derivatives-no derivatives / 
Creative Commons-Public Domain choice still makes me pause. I can see 
arguments in both options. For example, your description above about useful 
derivatives is very compelling. unfortunately, all the examples of derived 
work that I have seen are poorer quality than the original. The author of the 
derivatives usually just slap in a few extras without really taking into 
account the outcomes of the changes.

Can you show me examples of an original work and derived work similar to your 
example above? It would be good to see the incremental improvement argument in 
action.

************************* ORIGINAL RESPONSE *******************************

Hi Simon,

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Simon Cropper
<scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> wrote:
> If anyone is interested I have posted a lengthy post on the OSGeo-Edu list.
>
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/edu_discuss/2010-August/001179.html

I'm not going to subscribe to yet another list, I do have one comment
though (feel free to repost):

> (a) that the CC-BY-SA is quite a common licence. In my mind it reaffirms my
> belief that one of the main means of gratification for contributors of the
> open source community is recognition of their input.

Unless you explicitly waive attribution, every CC license except CC0
includes it.

> That why it puzzles me why
> people are happy with allowing their works to be modified (that is,
> derivatives created) without ensuring the quality of the derived work is
> maintained.

Why do you think people will always make it worse? I'd suggest that
anybody picking it up will intend to make it better, and given they're
going to the effort, probably will.

By using a No-Derivatives license it prevents an author from taking
your tutorial with Australian datums/data/references and swapping it
for Ugandan information, but otherwise leaving the workflows the same.
Or using a different FOSS package to perform the same tasks. Or
combining several Australian tutorials into a larger work. Or even
fixing a bug in your original tutorial.

Yes, they could ask you, and you'd probably say yes - but it just puts
hurdles in the way, which means less people will even attempt to jump
over them. If someone did ask, would you spend time to review their
work? Would you say they could do it, but only if they let you approve
it before release? If you will automatically say yes, why bother
putting NoDerivs on?

In the end though, you're the author and it's your work to license
however you want. Thanks for writing! :)

Rob :)
-- 
Cheers Simon

	Simon Cropper
	Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
	PO Box 160 Sunshine 3020
	P: 03 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437
	W: http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au