Stupid Licensing Stuff (non LSL question)

ok here's the scenario....

I'd like attribution, I'd also like it to be ignorable for substantially derivative works, (eg major revamps, inclusion in larger commercial projects, etc) but not for minor tweaks, or commercial as is use. (because frankly this is all about teaching and helping). I DON'T want to require that derivitaves be extensively marked up and available for comparison, because that is death to usage in a lot of commercial stuff?

no license I know of does such a thing, so what I've been looking at is this

CC-BY with some added statment text to the effect of the above... dunno if I can get away with that.

multi-licensing using CC-BY-ND and CC0
the first for the work itself, the second for derivations (annoyingly that means change a word and it's CC0)

straight up CC0 licensing, and just politely request credit (fine for some stuff, but I'd really like some credit)

some other combination?

I dunno, if anyone else has any thoughts on this, but they'd be very welcome

for reference
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses CC-*
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ CC0
legalese is linked on the bottom for the second page

I've been looking at this as well, just recently. Honestly, the question I have is - is there any reason not to write your own license? I know, everywhere I look says you need an attorney to do it, but I have never seen an actual reason WHY you need an attorney to do it. What's the attorney for? Pardon my stupidity, but Void opened the subject lol..

I too don't see the reason for an attorney, and when you look around, there's alot of generic licensing text out there that can even be slightly modified. I guess it all depends on how much you have riding on it. If you stand to make big bucks, it might be prudent to pay a real attorney to write a proper licensing agreement.

You need an attorney for any licensing creation is because a license is like a law and the law books state that you need to the "power of an attorney" to enact it's power and make your license (law) come into affect. If that really makes any sense..

I suppose it would be easier to just say that you need a law maker or a man of the law deciphering, not police, to say, "Yes. I approve this functionary and so under my authority, this country/world must follow it."

Nope. A license is not a law. It does not get "enacted." It is a contractual agreement, and anyone can create one. The only time the formal legal system gets involved is if one party to the agreement feels wronged by the other. At that point, the courts make a judgment on the basis of the wording in the license. The only reason that a lawyer is necessary -- and it's GOOD reason -- is that specific terms and syntax used in licenses have very particular meanings, established by case law and understood in the legal profession. An amateur may unwittingly create a license that looks perfect but uses the wrong language. If a case ever went to court, that could put the amateur at a disadvantage.

just for clarity, everyone has power of attorney (PoA) over themselves and their property... (unless they are formally declared incompetent).

PoA is just a term to mean that a person has the right to legally make decisions for the person that the PoA applies to, within the limits outlined in the PoA. for best effect, a PoA SHOULD be drawn up by a lawyer specializing in the type of law the PoA covers. (so that it's harder to challenge, and you get all your bases covered)

a license (in the sense of usage) is just another contract, and Should also be drawn up by a lawyer, (the CC-X licenses are, as are L/GPL and others, for generic usage) that specializes in the field of coverage.

Looks like I'll be just sticking with the CC-BY liscence, and they can include a

"[some parts] Copyright 2009 by Void Singer. see [web page address] and [license address] for details."

CC0 is public domain, if you release content into PD you relinquish all control over it. Period. That means you cannot hold anyone to any license you might grant them. A license is a contract and if you have no ability to hold someone to it, it might as well not exist. If you want your name to stick to your content, don't release it into PD.

Try CC-By, MIT, or BSD.

you are right of course... I'll just include a slight modification of the CC-by, so that included code doesn't become a hassle...