Traditional Knowledge content licenses

As I mentioned in a previous post, last week I participated in a workshop entitled After the Return: Digital Repatriation and the Circulation of Indigenous Knowledge. Among the many interesting ideas to emerge from the workshop is a discussion of copyright and traditional knowledge. It is well known that Western legal notions of intellectual property and copyright are not well suited to traditional knowledge, which might be shared by entire communities rather than "owned" by a particular individual. Up till now the best best attempt to bridge this gap that I've encountered is the Creative Commons. But while Creative Commons may be a better solution that copyright, it often seems to broad for Native language documentation.

The Mukurtu project has been developing Traditional Knowledge licenses which "create conditions for access and use of works that are in keeping with community practice." The licenses are described on their website. They're still in draft form, and I'm sure the developers would welcome feedback.