Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: sample document library: copyright, copyleft, CC, GPL?

[Andrew Netherton (andrewnetherton]

On 2/18/07, Tim Mensch <tim-coho-l [at] bitgems.com> wrote:
> That rules out all documents, unfortunately. It's been mentioned once
> already that in the US when you write a document, it's copyrighted.

Hmm.  In that case, I guess there is no choice but to go with a
Creative Commons license, and let each submitting group decide on
their own how to license it.  Obviously, I'd like to see everything
licensed as Public Domain, which would give new groups like my own
free reign to copy, modify, and use others' documents.  I could live
with an Attribution license as well.  I suppose it will simply be a
matter of educating those that want to submit their documents in how
to properly license them such that other groups can legally sample
from what they've done.

> Speaking of deciding to make the docs public, I'm a bit concerned myself
> about other ramifications of communities putting their docs online: We
> were given explicit advice to not make all of our policies viewable
> online where an insurance agent could find them, because of the
> potential for a policy to be seen as a poor insurance risk.

Interesting (if somewhat aggravating) problem.  OK, I think we can get
around that too.  The way I think the wiki will eventually form, each
group will have their own wiki page.  In addition, there will be pages
about documentation, and links from there to the actual documents.
> From both the group page and the documetns page, documents can be
linked for access by everyone.  Obviously, having them linked form
your group page would expose your group to the risk you're worried
about.  If you're worried about that, don't link from your group page.
You can still include the documents and have them linked through the
documentation pages, but they won't be traceable back to the group
(legally - but IANAL).  They'd be "anonymized".

Does that sound OK?

Andrew Netherton
Laurel Creek Commons
Waterloo, ON, Canada
http://andrewnetherton.wordpress.com