The Grumpy Editor's Obviously Incorrect 2006 Predictions

The Grumpy Editor's Obviously Incorrect 2006 Predictions

Posted Jan 12, 2006 14:24 UTC (Thu) by zotz (guest, #26117)
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's Obviously Incorrect 2006 Predictions

[The broadcast flag will be back, and European software patents too. The interests behind this sort of legislation never give up, so we'll never be able to stop fighting. But if we keep up the battle, we stand a respectable chance of winning much of the time.]

One problem is that we only have to lose once to lose big time, but we have to win everytime just to stand still in the muck we are already in.

Unless....

We find a way to go one the offensive with some winable battles.

One the copyright front, one idea I would like to see considered and discussed is this:

Right now everyone gets automatic "standard" copyright on anything that is copyrightable once they "fix" it, even if they do not put on a copyright notice.

I would like to see us push for a change which grants an automatic copyleft in the absence of a notice. You can still get the standard copyright simply by putting on a notice, but if you don't you get a copyleft copyright. (Right now, the closest I am aware of is the GPL for code and the CC BY-SA for other stuff. Does anyone know of better copyleft licenses for other stuff?)

First, is anyone willing to discuss possible benefits and drawbacks to such a plan?

Second, is anyone willing to discuss thoughts on how to get this change made if it looks like a good one?

all the best,

drew
---
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/85937
"Tings" - a "copyleft", nanowrimo 2005 novel.

---

(Log in to post comments)