How does COCOA compare to Creative Commons, etc.?
Below is a table comparing COCOA to Creative Commons, Gnu GPL, and Sun’s open DRM (DReaM). In brief, Creative Commons and Gnu GPL are used to grant certain, very specific rights, primarily focused on making works freely copyable; DRM (such as DReaM) is a means to enforce rights; whereas COCOA is a means to (a) specify any rights (not just specific ones), (b) distribute that information to users; (c) verify the authenticity of a license. COCOA can be used to specify CC or GPL rights, but can also specify many other kinds of rights, both commercial and non-commercial. COCOA is flexible enough to be used as a DRM system, though that is only one small aspect of it. Here is a point-by-point comparison: Feature COCOA Creative Commons GNU GPL Open DRM Purpose Framework to specify & distribute rights and license information. Set of licenses; many, but targeted to specific tasks, centered around free copying for non-commercial purposes Set of requirements to ensure work (typically software) can
