4.0/Draft 2

Welcome to the Public Discussion of 4.0d2

This page provides information specific to the public discussion of the second draft of version 4.0 (4.0d2). The drafts presented for comment are the result of discussions with the CC community and CC’s many Affiliates via the license-discuss email lists, wiki pages, affiliate consultations and other input.

Please contribute to the discussion on the license development list.

We expect the public comment period to remain open until early September, and to publish draft 3 of 4.0 by October. This is intentionally designed as a shorter consultation period than the lengthy (but important) discussion period following draft 1. In this phase, we plan to focus on final policy questions and refinements to the current draft.

(Note that for purposes of this discussion period, we are publishing BY-NC-SA (international) and BY-SA (international) only. BY-NC-SA contains most of the elements necessary to build the other four licenses (BY, BY-NC, BY-ND, and BY-NC-ND). Look for complete drafts of all six licenses with draft 3.)

Treatment of issues and proposals in 4.0d2

The discussion topic pages on our 4.0 wiki provide details on how policy and drafting decisions have been made in 4.0d2. We encourage you to review the explanations at the top of each page (marked as such) for the most comprehensive explanation. As well, please be sure to review the Sandbox page and our new Compatibility page. Finally, the numbered proposals on each topic page have a corresponding note if the topic was addressed in some manner in this draft. We include occasional prompts to highlight areas where additional feedback is especially requested

Policy and drafting decisions

The robust discussions on draft 1 surfaced a wide range of views on several important topics that have been well vetted. As a result, we are in the position to largely resolve several issues in draft 2, subject to fine tuning or new information.

Please note that CC is discussing compatibility with the Free Art License community and the Free Software Foundation. We had hoped to progress those to conclusion before publishing draft 2, but discussions are still underway. Given the many other changes made since draft 1, we choose to publish draft 2 for review notwithstanding in order to allow comment on the substantive changes. It is possible that outcomes from the compatibility discussions will require revisions to some of the following provisions, but do not expect anything approaching fundamental changes that could result in a major shift on the following.

• Scope of license. As previously made known, we are committed to licensing neighboring rights and others (however called) that are also closely related to copyright, such as database rights. We have eliminated the license-waiver distinction for copyright and ancillary rights in favor of unified treatment. In draft 2, all copyright and copyright-like rights (now defined) are licensed, and the term “ancillary rights” removed altogether. Please see the License Subject Matter page for more information, and our request for refinements.

• Attribution. Attribution and marking requirements have been further refined, though largely remain the same as in draft 1. See our comparison chart detailing changes across 4.0d1 and 4.0d2, as well as compared to v3.0.

• NonCommercial. After much consideration, we are settled on preserving the existing 3.0 treatment for 4.0, and turning our attention to proposals related to branding and communication about the NC licenses. Please see the NonCommercial page for further details about factors underlying this decision and our renewed commitment to clarifying NC where possible outside of the licenses.

• ShareAlike. We have improved the definition of adaptation, though without change in scope. As in draft 1, we eliminate references to “Collection.” We are also choosing not to deviate from CC’s current (and historic) policy of requiring SA for adaptations, but not other uses of the work that do not result in an adaptation per se, including uses in collections. Please see the ShareAlike page for details.

• Technical Protection Measures. The restriction on the use of effective technological measures remains unchanged in draft 2. Two proposals were advanced and seriously evaluated; however, we are not prepared to adopt either for reasons detailed on the TPM page. Note that we will be looking at ways to facilitate the waiver of this restriction for those licensors who do not object to the application of TPMs to their works.

Pending Discussion Topics

We welcome feedback on all changes in this draft, as well as the several identified for consideration in this public discussion period:

• Compatibility-related issues. As noted above, Creative Commons is exploring two-way compatibility between FAL 1.3 and BY-SA 4.0, and one-way compatibility from BY 4.0 and BY-SA 4.0 to Gnu GPLv3. Assuming progress is made, some features of those 4.0 licenses (as of d2) may require adjustment. We will keep the license development list updated, and vet any proposed changes.

• Collecting societies. Still open is the question of extended collective licensing arrangements, an issue that arose during the d1 public discussion. We are evaluating input from our affiliates, and expect to submit a proposal for consideration shortly.

• Termination. We also continue to consider a change in the termination provision that would build in a cure period and/or provisional reinstatement. This will be informed in part (though not entirely) on the compatibility discussions currently underway.

• Database rights. We are seeking a final round of input on the finer points of licensing sui generis database rights. These are tangential to the decision already made to license those rights on par with copyright in 4.0, but will ensure smooth functioning of the licenses.

• NC Branding/Communication. As noted above, we are turning our attention to a strategic discussion on the future of the NC license suite vis-à-vis CC’s other licenses. This topic will be framed for discussion and the license development list updated.

• Operation of the license. CC is preparing detailed information about how the international licenses are intended to operate and be interpreted across varying jurisdictions. We expect this may result in an interpretation provision (to be included in Section 7). Information will be published shortly to the wiki and the license development list.

Feedback requests, including topics and policies still under consideration

Please join the CC license-discuss list or add your input directly to the CC 4.0 wiki.

Issues for Draft 3

A reminder that the porting discussion is in abeyance until publication of d3. We continue to seek input from CC's affiliates with expertise in local copyright to identify issues that could affect operation of the licenses in their jurisdictions. This will allow adjustments to be considered prior to d3.