Re: ISMLP/WIMA (?)

[David Kastrup]

PMA <address@hidden> writes:

> Jay Anderson wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:54 PM, PMA<address@hidden>  wrote:
>>> Thanks Hans.  As I (don't really) understand, ISMLP requires
>>> a contributor of copyrighted materials to agree to their being
>>> licensed *as* public domain.
>>
>> IMSLP allows submission of items in the public domain and items under
>> a creative commons license. Allowed licenses listed here:
>> http://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:Creative_Commons_and_Performance_Restricted_licenses
>>
>> -----Jay
>
> Thanks Jay.  All my scores are under regular U.S. copyright.

Sure, and that does not change (well, not until you have been dead for
90 years).  The question is what use you make of your copyright.  You
can license it at any point of time under any licenses you consider fit.
You just can't retract the licenses of copies you already distributed
(even if they contain permission to create further copies licensed in
the same way) but of course you can pick a different license for new
copies you distribute, whether they are changed or unchanged in
comparison to previous copies.

So it is always possible to go from more restrictive licensing to more
permissive licensing.  The other direction is more complex.  I prefer
copyleft licenses which essentially allow somebody to turn a profit only
when he is better at marketing freely available material than I am
(commercial GNU/Linux distributions tend to live in that very narrow
space).

> I need to get clearer re ISMLP's requirements on that basis.

I think that the "Creative Commons" licenses should be compatible with
U.S. laws.

Yes, I'd prefer living in a simpler world, too.

-- 
David Kastrup