I feel I must finally post something, since the 2nd half of the "Spirit..." essay is turning into the second 9/10ths and I've been very, very occupied with other problems, mostly work, but also trying to mediate between Debian and Creative Commons (I'm a fan of both) over the fate of the CCPLv3 (the CC-By and CC-By-SA licenses -- in this article whenever I'm not specific, I am referring to these two licenses, and none of the other modules such as NC and ND, which are obviously "non-free").
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/debian_and_the_creative_commons