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Linus Torvalds on CC and DRM

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Noted many places, Linux creator Linux Torvalds has written on using CC to marginalize DRM:

Creative Commons licenses already require that you can’t
use technological measures to restrict the rigts you give with the CC
licenses. The “Share Alike” license in particular requires all work based
on it to also be shared alike, ie it has the “GPL feel” to it.

If enough interesting content is licensed that way, DRM eventually becomes
marginalized.
Yes, it takes decades, but that’s really no different at all
from how the GPL works. The GPL has taken decades, and it hasn’t
“marginalized” commercial proprietary software yet, but it’s gotten to the
point where fewer people at least worry about it.

Emphasis added. This is embedded in a debate about a future version of the GPL, the dominant free software license. Regardless of how you feel about this debate (or know of its existence), your mission is clear: create and discover great CC-licensed content.

Posted 06 February 2006

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