[LINK] web site choices.

[Roger Clarke]

At 18:57 +1000 5/9/06, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>Two things struck me:
...
>2. the variation in licences
...
>What sort of licence should I assert?

I'd better address this one straight away.

The AEShareNet licence set is designed for materials that the owner 
intends to be available for educational purposes (subject to some 
not-too-heavy limitations).  If that's a target of your material, I 
recommend that you make that licence available to visitors, as per my 
pages, e.g.
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/ICEC06.html

Details are available by clicking on the FfE icon.  There are several 
other AEShareNet licences, but FfE is most likely what (some) link 
subscribers would want to use for (some) of their materials.

(Declaration:  I was Chair of the company that established and runs 
the AEShareNet licence set, from its inception until a few weeks ago).

Note that I 'dual license', i.e. I make two different licences 
available on many of my pages.

One of the small set of Creative Commons licences ('Some Rights 
Reserved') is appropriate if you intend fairly free and open use of 
your materials, not specifically within educational contexts.

I generally use the tightest / least-liberal CC licence, the 
'by-nc-nd' one.  A quick explanation of the several alternatives in 
this section of a First Monday paper:
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/PrePrLic.html#AppCC

Finally, if you want to keep close control over your material, 
*don't* use a CC licence.  Instead use an 'All Rights Reserved' 
style.  The effect is this is to force anyone who wants to make use 
of your material come to you to ask for a licence, and thereby 
enables you to match the terms to the circumstances.  (Of course this 
ignores those people who ignore the assertion of ownership, and just 
use the material anyway, pretending that the implied licence that is 
granted my putting the material up on the Web makes it open slather).

I use an 'All Rights Reserved' approach for a small proportion of my 
output, which is published on my xamax site.  (All of the material on 
my ANU site is open-content licensed, and has been since I started 
the site in the mid-1990s).

I'd be happy to clarify or enlarge on the above, but that's probably 
already enough to make most people's eyes glaze.


For light relief, check out the position with 'Waltzing Matilda'  (:-)}
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/Copyright.html

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW