Dave Winer is asking for limits in the reduction of copyright protection. One of his "test cases" is the question if he could take one of Cory Doctorow's books and pass it off and sell it as his own work.
Strictly as a matter of copyright, Doctorow does ask for attribution for his "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" book. He also doesn't give people the right to sell the book. He is using a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
So that particular test question seems to be rather easy. On the other hand, this question shows that there still seem to be some misperceptions about what Creative Commons wants and does. It might take some time until everybody understands the concept.
While the answer to that particular test case seems to be easy, I completely agree with Winer that copyright is necessary. I especially agree with his views on the Google practice of editing texts published on the web by adding hyperlinks without the author's knowledge and permission. But that question requires a separate post.
Update: Winer reports that Doctorow objects to the above theoretical use as "fraudulent". I would rather just call it a violation of copyright.
Comments and trackbacks are welcome at the Google pagerank zero shadow site.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at April 1, 2005 01:54 PM