discuss: My obsolete HOWTOs being sold as a book
Subject:
Re: My obsolete HOWTOs being sold as a book
From:
David Merrill ####@####.####
Date:
18 Feb 2001 21:04:19 -0000
Message-Id: <20010218160320.C26410@lupercalia.net>
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.
I am going to write a paragraph about this for my next LWN submission.
Does anybody know whether other publishers are doing this, or is it an
isolated problem?
David, anything in particular you would like me to say? Otherwise, I'm
just going to make it an advisement that we've discovered (at least?)
one publisher is selling out of date documentation and this is
something users should be careful to avoid. I think many people don't
realize how often the documentation is updated, especially since we
don't have any good mechanisms in place (yet) for easily keeping your
system current. I'm not going to name the publisher - even if I knew
who it was.
Where is the best place for me to find a list of the docs currently
available in hard copy? I would like to put that list in the news
also, with links to the publishers. We should be encouraging
publishers to print the documents as long as they do it responsibly,
and listing the reputable publishers we know of would be a good way of
doing that, while simultaneously steering people away from the more
shady folks.
--
Dr. David C. Merrill http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project ####@####.####
Collection Editor & Coordinator http://www.linuxdoc.org
Finger me for my public key
Law of the Jungle:
He who hesitates is lunch.
