[Proposal] Re-license all content under OWL

[ghost]

Hi, I noticed this repo/website is dual-licensed under MIT and CC-BY (MIT for code, CC-BY for other content). Given this selection of licenses, I assume your intent was to allow others to do with the content whatever they want as long as they give you some basic attribution (this is the spirit of the MIT license, anyway). By doing this, others also don't have to bother with complex license terms such as the GNU GPL. However, the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) does not match this criteria. It is a fairly long license full of legalese and what's worse, it doesn't let people simply do whatever they want with the content as long as they give you attribution. To quote the Copyfree Initiative's comment on the license:

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) asserts (as of v3.0) "You may not impose any effective technological measures on the Work that restrict the ability of a recipient of the Work from You to exercise the rights granted to that recipient under the terms of the License." This imposes restrictions on technological mechanisms of copying and redistribution. Depending on whether the prohibited technologies are integral to a derivative version or distinct from it, this violates one or more of points 2. Free Distribution, 3. Free Modification and Derivation, and 4. Free Combination of the Copyfree Standard Definition. You may find the offending text in section 4a of the Attribution License 3.0. Similar restrictions apply to other versions of the CC-BY license.

I think what you actually want is the Open Works License. The Open Works License (OWL) is a simple license in the spirit of the MIT license, that applies basically the same conditions like the MIT to anything you want, from audiovisual content and code to physical object (like paintings that might be subject to copyright law). Not only would this license make the terms less restrictive and easier to understand than when it's under CC-BY, it could also easily unify the terms applied to code with the terms applied to other types of content.

You can find the terms here.

Additional resources:

• arguments for copyfree licensing
• overview of the different approaches to copyright

[cbscribe]

Thank you for this. I will definitely look into it.