discuss: My obsolete HOWTOs being sold as a book
Subject:
Re: My obsolete HOWTOs being sold as a book
From:
Gabe Wachob ####@####.####
Date:
18 Feb 2001 03:49:00 -0000
Message-Id: <Pine.BSF.4.30.0102171944180.79151-100000@xomi.pair.com>
What if you require in the license that a "history" or "change log"
section always be included in the document or any derivative work. This
history section could contain the last time the document was edited and a
brief note about what edits were performed. It should also contain a URL
pointing to the current version of the document (as of the time of that
entry in the history section).
This way, if a publisher takes your document that is (lets say) 3 years
old and stuffs it into a book, the document will contain prominent notice
that the document is old. If you say something like "Information in this
document changes frequently, you should check for a new version of this
document if it is dated more than 6 months before the time you read this".
Now, of course it doesn't prevent old versions from being published, but
it does give a reader the notice that you might be seeking.
-Gabe
On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, David Merrill wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 17, 2001 at 12:58:23PM -0800, David Lawyer wrote:
> > I wrote this on Sun Feb 4 22:17:11 2001 but due to my email
> > configuration it was bounced:
> >
> > I recently found out that I'm a joint author of a book published in
> > Jan. 1999 that is still being sold. It's called "Linux Modem and
> > Serial Communications". The howtos it's based on are very obsolete
> > and people that buy such a book are being cheated.
> >
> > Thus I now wish that I had not permitted free copying in my license.
> > Except that LDP requires that a license must permit free copying.
> > Also, most non-LDP mirror sites have stale versions of my howtos.
> > While it's wrong to give away stale versions, it's even worse to sell
> > stale versions and I think that a prohibition of this should be
> > permitted in a free license.
>
> How would you word it? I want to avoid the problem of an author
> abandoning a document and it having to die, but I do see your point.
> Can you propose a wording that does both things?
>
>
