question about a project licensed under CC NC claiming to be open source

Joseph Bell josephabell at verizon.net
Wed Jun 23 17:01:06 UTC 2010


Because Creative Commons itself recommends you don't use it for software:

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FFAQ#Can_I_license_software_using_CC_licenses.3F

It's language is geared around works such as music, poetry, recordings, books, etc. - it leaves unanswered questions such as what is a derivative work in the context of software.  There are plenty of Open Source licenses to choose from, Creative Commons not being one of them.

Of course, this is my opinion, but it's also the opinion of Creative Commons.

On Jun 23, 2010, at 11:52 AM, Tzeng, Nigel H. wrote:

> Other than for political reasons (as in avoiding unnecessary drama with a
> food fight with OSI and FSF that benefits no one) I don't understand the
> frown in using CC for software.
> 
> Compared to the state of open source licensing the CC world seems to me to
> be much more clear for the layperson, far easier to find the kind of license
> you want, far fewer proliferation issues, fewer ideological "discussions"
> and much more organized overall.
> 
> I want a license so anyone can reuse my stuff as long as they mention me.
> CC BY.
> 
> I want a license so anyone can reuse my stuff as long as they share with the
> community and mention me.  CC BY-SA.
> 
> I want a license so anyone but Microsoft can reuse my stuff (without a
> different license anyway) as long as they share with the community and
> mention me.  CC BY-SA-NC
> 
> Want to understand what it means?  Click the icon/link and you have a
> description in plain English what permissions you have and what your
> responsibilities are.
> 
> Picking a software license really should be this easy and this clear for
> everyone involved.  Even if it turns out being "open source" and not "Open
> Source".
> 
> 
> On 6/23/10 12:21 PM, "Joseph Bell" <josephabell at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
>> Creative Commons on source code... frown.
>> 
>> From the website it looks like they simply want to generate revenue from
>> corporate use, anyone else can use it freely - so it's really a dual licensing
>> question.
>> 
>> I haven't read CC NC 2.5 but you should review it carefully depending on what
>> you want to do with this code - if they are in a position of dual licensing
>> they probably don't want you taking the code, extending it, relicensing it,
>> etc.  What do you want to do with it?
>> 
>> Joe
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 23, 2010, at 11:14 AM, Thomas Riboulet wrote:
>> 
>>> hello,
>>> 
>>> I don't know if it's the right place but, I didn't find any better suited
>>> mailing list for that.
>>> 
>>> Following some links I found a gallery made in JS : http://highslide.com/
>>> 
>>> the website is claiming that it's open source, yet the licence is Creative
>>> Commons non commercial 2.5 and I didn't find any link to the code except the
>>> actual js lib.
>>> 
>>> I don't mind the commercial part but the "you need approval for commercial
>>> use" sounds more like the old shareware thing ...
>>> 
>>> the CC NC license is not listed in the open source licenses, what is the
>>> stand of opensource.org in such a case ?
>>> and what action is possible towards this project to have them clarify the
>>> status of their software ?
>>> 
>>> regards,
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Thomas
>> 
> 




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