discuss: new documentation license
Subject:
Re: new documentation license
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
25 Nov 2003 04:14:34 -0000
Message-Id: <20031125033226.GB445@lafn.org>
On Mon, Nov 24, 2003 at 09:54:41AM +0100, jdd wrote:
> Tabatha Marshall wrote:
>
> >Hi Rodolfo. Honestly, from a Linux user perspective (reviewer hat is
> >OFF), I am not crazy about advertisements in HOWTOs.
>
> be aware that an html doc may be dynamic and have an environment dynamic.
>
> that is you distribute a sgml source, no? the displayed form can be
> nearly anything, embedded or not.
I said that I like a license that would prohibit "display" of advertising
with the doc. The display can happen if advertising is added to the doc
by the organization displaying it. Or it can be added by use of frames
in HTML. Or an ad can appear when you click on viewing the next part of
the doc. Or ... I would prohibit all of them. Copyright law gives the
copyright owner the right to control the the display of the work.
I don't think that this should be a requirement of an LDP license, but
it could be an option that authors could use to prohibit this kind of
abuse. Now putting docs in a book and selling the book for a profit is
OK, since they will sell the book for less due to competition: if they
charge too much, someone else can produce the same thing for less. A
few years ago there were books for sale in large bookstores consisting
of only LDP docs. This was one way to determine which docs were "good".
Is that true now? I guess I'll go to a bookstore and look.
David Lawyer
