In response to your final question about “a stronger center of gravity than the licenses”, have you heard of the Open Knowledge Definition (OKD)?

It lives at:

http://www.opendefinition.org

Here is an explanatory snippet:

“The Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) provides an answer to the question: what is open knowledge? It puts forward, in a simple and clear manner, principles that define open knowledge and which open knowledge licenses must satisfy.

The concept of openness has already started to spread rapidly beyond its original roots in academia and software. We already have ‘open access’ journals, open genetics, open geodata, open content etc. As the concept spreads so we are seeing a proliferation of licenses and a potential blurring of what is open and what is not.

In such circumstances it is important to preserve compatibility, guard against dilution of the concept, and provide a common thread to this multitude of activities across a variety of disciplines. The definition, by providing clear set of criteria for openness, is an essential tool in achieving these ends.”

Regards,

Jonathan

If you had used countries rather than galaxies, then the licenses are actually passports for content to travel.

All passports serve the same function, it is just the place that you may want to go to that have different requirements. For some you need a visa, for others you need a biometric passport and so on.

We may never get a borderless world but travel could become easier for both people and content.

I like you thinking on this. May be we are striving for a borderless world for content!

Brendan