CCD CopyWrite

PURPOSE:

The CCD CopyWrite distribution and use license is not merely a Free/Libre/Open Source Software license.  While software licensed CCD CopyWrite does indeed fit the definitions for free and open source software as set forth by the Free Software Foundation, GNU Project, and Open Source Initiative, its applicability goes beyond that.  It is a complete FLOW license whose intent is to provide maximum freedom of use and distribution to anyone possessing a licensed work.


FLOW: Unified "Free/Libre/Open Works" Licensing



What is needed is not a collection of open source software licenses and various types of free content licenses, each for a different type of copyrightable work.  Instead, what we need is a single, unified FLOW license that can cover the full range of copyrightable works, without requiring artificial division of works into categories of content such as software, documentation, and music.  In addition to facilitating production of multimedia derivative works that might combine all three of these types of works and others besides, rather than hindering them by separating them legally through disparate licensing, this can also potentially simplify the legal landscape for developers of copyrightable works of all types.

Perhaps more importantly, a license whose terms must be applicable across all content types must necessarily focus on the most important aspect of copyrightable works: that which differentiates them legally and tangibly from everything else but is common across all copyrightable works.  Such a unified license is thus both pragmatically and philosophically more appropriate to its purpose within a larger context than can be addressed on an ad-hoc, case-by-case, work-by-work, license-by-license basis.


Addressing Problems Of Existing Licenses



GPL: The GNU General Public License mostly conforms to the definitions of Copyleft and Free Software, as well as conforming to the Open Source Definition, but it does not in fact effectively promote intellectual liberty.  The FLOSS development community at large has become accustomed to Richard Stallman's explanations of his supposed philosophy of software freedom and the General Public License he spawned and nurtured, and is prone to assume that the espoused philosophical statements and license are in some way related, guaranteeing the freedom for noncorporate developers and software users to do what they will with the software that comes into their possession.  Unfortunately, that is not entirely the case.

Clauses of the GPL v2 impose unrealistic restrictions on developers and grass-roots FLOSS distribution projects — unrealistic, at least, if one expects them to be feasible, easily accomplished, and pursued with a community spirit independent of corporate and other strong organizational backing.  Notable amongst these clauses are Sections 3 and 6.  They are further reinforced by even stronger legal language in Section 10 of the proposed GPL v3 (as of this writing, 2006).  The implications are pretty clear: if you don't have the ability to ensure reliable, redundant methods for ensuring source code availability support for three years beyond the availability of distributed binaries, you are not in a legal position to offer open source software in binary formats for free distribution.  This means, among other things, that if you give away a Linux installation CD, you could be violating the terms of the GPL.  The Software Liberation Front provides one such perspective on the theory and practice of the GPL and the Free Software Foundation that promotes it.

BSD: BSD-style licenses, such as the BSD License itself and the MIT License, suffer a different problem: they are not perceived to be strongly Copyleft licenses.  While recent analyses of the BSD license itself suggest the BSD License is strongly heritable after all, it is still generally thought that certain types of derivative works can be created under licenses that do not provide the same protections for redistributors, users, and contributing developers, essentially taking forks of BSD licensed code (for instance) out of the pool of Free/Libre/Open Source Software.  Regardless of the heritability characteristics of these licenses, however, they have in common with the GPL an inapplicability across various types of media: they are specifically confined to the realm of software.

Creative Commons: There are a number of Creative Commons licenses that come within spitting distance of the technical effects of the terms of the CCD CopyWrite license.  They all fail in some technical regard, however, in addition to the fact that the obtuse, dense legal language of them imposes unnecessary complexity on licensing terms and contributes to both potential misinterpretations and opportunity for special case loopholes.


The CCD CopyWrite License Itself



CCD CopyWrite is a Copyfree, unified Free/Libre/Open Works license suitable for software licensing purposes that encourages free use and distribution of licensed content without legal encumbrances that require unreasonable technical support conditions of distributors.  The intention is to maintain a license of simple enough phrasing to be comprehensible in its legal ramifications to the layperson, to reinforce the importance of honest and proper attribution for creative works, and to indemnify distributors and developers of licensed materials against all comers in the legal realm of copyright infringement litigation to free their minds to be inspired to create.

The CCD CopyWrite license has been described as a potentially self-propagating "protected public domain", approximating conditions of the public domain with the exception that it also behaves a bit like a roach motel: what goes in(to the license) doesn't come out.  Because of its strong heritability, CCD CopyWrite is not GPL compatible.  GPL compatibility is defined by the Free Software Foundation to indicate software whose licensing terms allows it to be included in GPL software projects and thus distributed under the GPL.  In other words, to be GPL compatible, the CCD CopyWrite license would have to lose the "protected" part of its "protected public domain" terms.

LICENSE TEXT:

CCD CopyWrite Version 0.9
http://ccd.apotheon.org

IDENTIFICATION:

    This document comprises an explanation of the legal terms and conditions for reproduction, distribution, and use of any work to which it is applied as a distribution license.  It shall be known as any of the following terms, though the preferred primary notice of license status shall be option number 2, preferably with date of the work's copyright appended.

        1.  Credit as Credit's Due CopyWrite
        2.  CCD CopyWrite
        3.  CopyWrite

    The terms "Credit as Credit's Due CopyWrite", "CCD CopyWrite", and "CopyWrite", as applied to this License for distribution, are protected by all applicable trademark and copyright restrictions.  This License should not be construed to apply to its own content except as explicitly defined within the text of this License.


APPLICABILITY:

    This License applies to any work which contains a notice by the legal copyright holder or as allowed under the terms of LICENSING below indicating that it may be distributed under the terms of the Credit as Credit's Due CopyWrite license.  The term Work as used in this document refers to any work (original or derivative) to which this License applies.  If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License.


DEFINITIONS:

    "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally submitted to the Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner or by any individual or entity authorized to submit on behalf of the copyright owner.  For the purposes of this definition, "submitted" means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to communication on or by electronic mailing lists, issue tracking systems, postal mail, private emails, and source code control systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

    "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or entity on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and subsequently incorporated within the Work.
    
    "Derivative Work" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object form, that is based on or derived from the Work and for which annotations, editorial revisions, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship.  For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link or bind by name to the interfaces of, the Work and Derivative Works thereof.

    "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for reproduction, distribution, and use as defined by the content of this License document.

    "Licensor" shall mean the copyright holder or entity authorized by the copyright holder, directly or by terms of this License, that is granting the License.  This person or entity may also be referred to as the "Author", where appropriate.

    "Object" form shall mean any form of the Work distributed under terms of this License resulting from mechanical translation or transformation of a Source form, including but not limited to compiled object code, generated document, binary data or content file, compressed file, and conversion to any other media types.

    "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications, including but not limited to configuration files, documentation source, markup format, musical notation, plain text format, and software source code.

    "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available subject to the terms of this License.

    "You" shall mean any individual or entity exercising permissions granted by this License.


COPYRIGHT LICENSE:

    Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form, subject only to the terms of this License.


PATENT LICENSE:

    Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to any patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are either explicitly identified as licensed or infringed by their Contribution alone or by combination of their Contribution with the Work to which such Contribution was submitted, subject only to the terms of this License.

    
DISTRIBUTION:

    You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You meet the following conditions:
        A. You must provide to any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of this License.  You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.  You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License.
        B. You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices from the Source form of the Work, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works.
        C. If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or, within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and wherever such third-party notices normally appear.  The contents of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and do not modify the License.  You may add attribution notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed as modifying the License and do not contradict applicable surviving attribution notices from earlier versions of the Work or Works from which Derivative Works are derived.
    D. If You create a Derivative Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Derivative Work any reference to such Licensor, as requested.


TRADEMARKS:

    This License does not grant permission to use the trade names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor, except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.


REVOCATION:

    Any violation of the terms of this License shall constitute a revocation of the terms of this License for the violator and restriction of any use of the content of the Work, in total or in part, by the violator, in perpetuity.  All right to use or distribution of the licensed Work, or profits garnered from use or distribution, shall be forfeit.


DISCLAIMER:

    The terms of this License shall not be construed to imply warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.


LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:

    In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing according to the terms of WARRANTY ACCEPTANCE below, shall any Contributor be liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor has been advised of the possibility of such damages, unless such Contributor offers a warranty guarantee separate from this License.


WARRANTY ACCEPTANCE:

    While redistributing the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer, and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity, or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.

   
LICENSING:

    This License constitutes Version 0.9 of the Credit as Credit's Due CopyWrite License (CCD CopyWrite, or CopyWrite).  It may at the discretion of any distributor or redistributor (You) be replaced with later Versions of the CCD CopyWrite License for inclusion of CopyWrite notice with distributions of the Work, whether as the original Work or a Derivative Work.  Where individuated reference to any given Version of the License is not specified, it is to be assumed that the most recent Version of the License is applicable.  The text of this License may be reproduced and redistributed in unmodified form, in its entirety, at will.  Excerpts may be reproduced and redistributed as well, subject where applicable to terms presented under IDENTIFICATION above.  You may not redistribute any Work that you received subject to the terms of this License under any other license except as explicitly set forth in this paragraph.  No parts of this license shall be omitted in distribution except those relating to replacement of the current version of the license with later versions.

RELEASE VERSION ARCHIVE:

CCD CopyWrite v0.2:

This was the first release version of CCD CopyWrite.  Its form was based on the Creative Commons Attribution License, with very brief verbal endorsement by telephone from a representative of Creative Commons.  Unfortunately, I don't recall who it was, and I'm sure they didn't even bother to write anything down on a sticky note in relation to my call.  Regardless, the CC Attribution License was the closest in form of any existing license to achieving what I wanted, legally speaking.  Very (relatively) few alterations needed to be made to get the first release version off the ground, allowing me to start stamping emails, administration scripts, and online essays with a URL pointing at the CCD CopyWrite license.

CCD CopyWrite v0.8:

Development of version 0.8 actually began as development of version 0.6, but 0.6 never materialized.  The point, of course, was to alter the format of the CCD CopyWrite license to simplify the language of the license significantly from its 0.2 release version.  Version 0.8 was put together by gutting the development version 0.5 and adding clear English language, inspired to some extent by other licenses like the BSD licenses and Apache License v2.0, some of the legal language of which might be clearly recognizable as inspiration for version 0.8 of CCD CopyWrite.