Deepak, don't disagree with any of this. In a perfect world everything would be public domain, everyone would be respectful of the context and the wishes of authors and everyone would contribute to the cost of producing the next thing that they needed.

In the somewhat less perfect world that we actually live in there needs to be a balance. But do we build the framework based on principles or on needing to enforce the desired behaviour? And that is not a rhetorical question, I am actually interested in what is the best answer in practice.

But the fundamental principle is one of respect. So if I take my view to its logical extreme, the value of CC licences is not their legal basis but the community norms that have grown up around them. I suppose I have to take the view that the fact they are based on property law is unfortunate but necessary to provide enough teeth to encourage the growth of that general respect.