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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.1047  Friday, 24 November 2006

From: 		Ron Severdia <william@playshakespeare.com>
Date: 		Friday, 24 Nov 2006 09:42:11 -0800
Subject: 	Licensing and Public Domain

I've been having a lot of ongoing conversations with various Shakespeare 
fans about where the line is drawn with regards to licensing. Almost a 
year ago, some fellow thespians/scholars & I started PlayShakespeare.com 
with the intent of it being a free resource for the works of Shakespeare, 
as well as a source (and discussion grounds) focused on the productions of 
his plays (ideas, concepts, etc.). There are a number of other free 
versions online, but we're in the process of editing our own version of 
the texts to provide a more modern and better-quality alternative to 
existing options.

People tend to favor the GNU GPL for it's openness and freedom of usage: 
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

I prefer the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 
License here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

The main difference between the two is the GNU GPL gives anyone the right 
to print the texts off of the page, compile and edition and sell it. The 
CC license restricts this, but allows freedom to do whatever you want as 
long as you maintain the same kind of licensing.  Personally, I have a 
problem allowing someone else to make a profit off of something (even if 
it's $1) that was founded to be free for everyone. So the questions at 
hand are:

1) In the opinion of the people on this list, which is the best type of 
license to use? (Even another option I didn't mention)

2) What's your opinion on the quality of texts currently available online 
and free? Is there one particular site that stands out? Why?

Thank you!

Ron Severdia
PlayShakespeare.com

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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions 
expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor 
assumes no responsibility for them.

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