[okfn-discuss] The role of open licensing in open science

Thu Jan 22 00:28:56 UTC 2009

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 4:55 PM, Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
> Jonathan Gray wrote:
>
>> So, what's the right approach to licensing? John Wilbanks has argued,
>> persuasively in my opinion, that data should be held in the public
>> domain.
>
> The public domain cannot "hold" anything.
>
> Copyleft prevents anyone "holding" anything.

Hmm...

The GNU GPL prevents the negative-sort of "holding" (maybe
withholding) that is typically used to keep Price above Cost (to
Profit above Wage).

Whereas saying "held in the public domain" I think is talking about a
positive-sort of "holding" that means everyone is able to "get ahold
of" their own copy without someone else getting in the way.

Patrick