[Sussex] Canadian "Open Source" licence for creative works completed

[Gavin Stevens]

On Wed, 8 Sep 2004 15:00:27 +0100
Steve Dobson <steve at dobson.org> wrote:

> Mark
> 
> On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 01:58:45PM +0100, Mark Harrison wrote:
> > Many of you may be aware of this:
> > 
> > > In harmony with the GNU/Linux philosophy of making software free
> > > and shareable, the USA Creative Commons project came up with
> > > licenses for allowing artistic works to be copied, shared, and
> > > modified. Unfortunately, the wording of those licenses is
> > > necessarily specific to USA law, and they don't quite work in
> > > Canada (or other countries).
> > 
> > Well, the "Canadian port" of the legal work is now complete, and
> > there is therefore a "free" (as in beer) licence for creative works
> > valid in Canadian law. The "launch party" is happening in a couple
> > of weeks time.
> > 
> > http://www.cippic.ca/en/projects-cases/icommons-canada/
> > 
> > Would anyone have any objection to my sending an "official note of
> > congratulations from the Sussex Linux Users Group" on our behalf?
> > 
> > If so, I'll post a draft here first.
> > 
> > I think it's important that we recognise this kind of initiative "as
> > a group" as well as as individuals...
> 
> I think it would be a good idea to send an "official" congratulations.
> 
> However I would be unhappy for such a message to sent using "Microsoft
> Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437" (Mark's MUA).  Microsoft is currently
> using "Open Standards" and their "Royalty Free Sender ID Patent
> License" as a weapon agains the GPL [1].
> 
> This I think gives the wronge message as it shows support (or at least
> acceptace) of Microsoft's current FUD that "Royalty Free" is
> compatable with FOSS.  
> 
Couldn't agree more - any message of congratulations should be sent
using Open Source software (I won't dare to suggest a client to use,
knowing how passionate people can get about their favourites).

Gavin.