OSL 2.1 for textbooks

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

> The creative commons licences are a little egregious in that they
> permit purpose based restrictions (ie the non commercial
> characteristic).

One can choose a CC license without that restriction and require
ShareAlike, so that downstream users cannot impose a non-commercial
restriction.

Another issue with CC licenses is that they do not regulate source
code.  From the CC FAQ:

  Can I use a Creative Commons license for software?

  Unlike our licenses -- which do not make mention of source or object
  code -- [FSF and OSI] licenses were designed specifically for use with
  software.

Licensees can make derivative works, but without the TeX files, making
revisions requires needless extra work: scissors, masking tape, and
whiteout, or perhaps worse rekeying a manuscript.

-Sanjoy