4.0

CC is embarking on a versioning process for its core license suite, which we expect will result in version 4.0 of the suite. The first public discussions of 4.0 were held at CC's Global Summit 2011. The public process is kicked off with a blog post laying out some of the key reasons for pursuing 4.0 at this time.

Since CC's launch in 2002, it has versioned its core license suite 3 times, the last (3.0) in early 2007. CC has progressed toward becoming a global standard. 4.0 is a tremendous opportunity to ensure the license suite is ideally crafted to further CC's vision and mission over the next decades.

Goals and objectives

Creative Commons staff, board and community have to date identified several goals for the next version of its core license suite tied to achieving CC's goal and mission. These include:

Internationalization – position our licenses to ensure they are well received, readily understood, and easily adopted worldwide;

Interoperability – maximize interoperability between CC licenses and other licenses to reduce friction within the commons, promote standards and stem license proliferation;

Long-lasting — anticipate new and changing adoption opportunities and legal challenges, allowing the new suite of licenses to endure for the foreseeable future; and

Data/PSI/Science/Education — recognize and address impediments to adoption of CC by governments as well as other important, publicly-minded institutions in these and other critical arenas.

Supporting Existing Adoption Models and Frameworks – remain mindful of and accommodate the needs of our existing community of adopters leveraging pre-4.0 licenses, including governments but also other important constituencies.

Organization and purpose of this wiki

This wiki is the central location for documenting key discussion topics and suggestions for improving the license suite in version 4.0, together with supporting information and relevant links. It is intended to supplement, not replace, the cc-license discuss email list (subscribe) that will serve as the main discussion forum for the versioning process just as it has with prior versioning efforts.

CC has pre-populated the wiki with key topics identified to date. We ask contributors to be thoughtful about placement of additional and related topics, and where possible to insert those topics on the Sandbox page before starting a new page or if you are unsure about where to add a new topic. We would also prefer (but will not require) that contributors use their real names when editing the wiki.

Process

TK

Note cc-licenses

Draft timeline

TK

Items for Discussion

Various aspects of the license suite potentially could be improved in the version 4.0 licenses. We will gather and rigorously debate and analyze these items and corresponding proposals for handling them in version 4.0. We encourage the broadest possible CC community to engage in this process with us. Add, improve, and discuss specific items here. If you do not find a suitable existing Category for an item you would like to propose or discuss, please add it initially to the Sandbox where suggestions for new pages will be aggregated.

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