Re: Alternatives to Creative Commons

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

"Arc Riley" <arcriley@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 6:05 PM, Ken Arromdee <arromdee@rahul.net> wrote:
> 
> > In order to release it under the GPL (at least if you want people
> > to be able to distribute it), you have to release the uncompressed
> > audio or video
> 
> Says who?  You have to distribute the it in a form that's ready for
> editing.

That's not what the GPL says. From GPLv2 §3:

     The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work
     for making modifications to it.

>From GPLv3 §1:

     The "source code" for a work means the preferred form of the work
     for making modifications to it.

It's not sufficient for it to be "ready for editing", it must be the
*preferred* form (usually taken to mean "preferred by the copyright
holder") for making modifications to the work.

This prevents someone releasing a binary blob of data that they
compiled from a much more manageable source form, and claiming that
someone can exercise their freedom because they can hack it with a hex
editor. The GPL demands the recipient must have equal access to the
*preferred* source form.

> Even DV (digital video) is compressed, people use it all the time
> even professionally for editing and it's extremely lossy (miniDV is
> 4:1:1, beside the intraframe compression applied).

If, and *only* if, such a form qualifies as "the preferred form of the
work for making modifications to it", that would be sufficient under
the GPL.

> > If you're editing the audio/video in some weird format that you
> > don't have a free tool for, this may be a problem.
> 
> If the content is generated, then yes you do, and yes it's a problem
> for people using proprietary toolchains to generate free content.
> This in my mind is an argument against using proprietary toolchains.

Agreed.

> You do not, however, need to release tools already available under a
> GPL compatible license unless modifications are needed to generate
> the object code (your generated content).

That's my understanding also.

-- 
 \          “The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice |
  `\                                          within.” —Mahatma Gandhi |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney