Open Access Trumps Developing Nations Licence

In a significant announcement, the Creative Commons organisation has said that it is retiring the Developing Nations licence:

The Developing Nations license is in conflict with the growing “Open Access Publishing” movement. While the license frees creative work in the developing nations, it does not free work in any way elsewhere. This means these licenses do not meet the minimum standards of the Open Access Movement. Because this movement is so important to the spread of science and knowledge, we no longer believe it correct to promote a stand alone version of this license.

This move is an interesting indication of the growing ability of open access to define the terms of the debate about open content.