License

Eligible Content

This license applies to the website content for which I am the copyright holder: my stories, journal entries, photos and drawings. This includes the MRI images on The Cancer Blog, the css and html used for the site, and the litesite static site generator script used to build the site.

This license does not apply to works by others: custom story artwork copyrighted by its artist, the translation excerpts on the translations page, and (obviously) anything at an external link.

Licensing

All eligible creative content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-SA).

The litesite software is licensed under a GNU General Public License version 3 or later (GPLv3).

All css and html is in the public domain.

Free as in Beer

I believe that everyone should have access to ideas, even if they can’t afford to pay for it. The ideas in my writing, artwork and code are no doubt modest, but they’re what I have to offer. I make them freely available as an expression of this belief. If you enjoy my work, please thank me by doing something incredibly kind in the world.

Free as in Speech

I believe that wonderful things happen when people build on ideas that are freely exchanged. Under the CC-BY-SA license, people are welcome to share and build on my creative content without asking or paying me, as long as they acknowledge its origin (the BY clause, credit must be given to the creator). The SA clause (adaptations must be shared under the same license) ensures that this freedom is always paid forward. For software, the GPLv3 ensures the same thing.

Commercial Adaptations

In an ideal world, no one would need to monetize what they create in order to survive. In our actual world, however, money controls access to a great many things it shouldn’t. For my creative works I chose a CC license without the NC clause (non-commercial use only) to honor that reality, as the GPL does. I make my work free-as-in-beer, but you are free to request payment.

Here’s a concrete example to help make things clear. The CC-BY-SA license grants you the right to, say, turn one of my stories into a movie and charge people money to see it. You don’t have to ask for my permission, and you don’t have to give me a share of the profits. You do have to list me and my story in the film credits, and you do have to make it clear that I haven’t endorsed your movie. You also do have to let other people use your movie under the same conditions—so anyone could make a copy of your movie and show it to others for free (or for payment). If you want to keep the exclusive rights to distribute and monetize your film, you’re better off contacting me to license the story under different terms.