RE: Peggy Hoon on licenses

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

While I agree about the general utility of CC licenses, I wish 
someone could explain to me what the difference between 
"commercial" and "noncommercial" use is. The CC itself conducted 
a survey a couple of years ago and found little consensus beyond 
a very small core of shared understanding of what the distinction 
connotes. This is not just a philosophical concern, since very 
real practical consequences depend on knowing the difference as 
it applies to various publishing ventures.

Sandy Thatcher


>The best licensing in existence for scholarly communication,
>IMHO, is CC licensing, as this simplifies understanding of how
>materials can be used. CC licenses are used by
>subscriptions-based as well as open access publishers. Of course,
>this does not help when we are licensing resources from vendors /
>publishers who do not use CC licenses. The reason that I bring
>this up is because all of us who work with vendors at any level
>can play a useful role in helping them to understand the current
>and evolving needs of scholarship, so that they can develop
>practices which will help them to survive and thrive into the
>future.
>
>best,
>
>Heather G. Morrison
>Project Coordinator
>BC Electronic Library Network