Re: New GNOME Book

["David C. Mason" <dcm redhat com>]

Judith Samson <judith.samson@usaserve.net> writes:


> I just finished a user-level book called Sams Teach Yourself GNOME in 24
> Hours. It's due to be published in May.
> 
> I've gotten permission from the publisher to post some chapters for free
> on the Web, so I was hoping to either set up a link from the GNOME web
> site or the GDP web site, or else post chapters directly from the GNOME
> Doc list, whatever works best. I'm not sure how many I'll be able to get
> away with; ideally I would like to post the entire book, but I don't
> know what I can do yet.
> 
> Since I'm now finished with the book part, I'll also be able to
> contribute more directly to the GDP. Some of you might know me from the
> sparse posts I've made to gnome-list, or from my flaky promises to help
> out with the GDP, but now I really, really mean it! I'll turn some stuff
> in--really!
> 

Judith,

Thanks for the offer. This is not the first time we have had such an
offer and we are grateful for all the help. There are some fundamental
problems, however, that make it very difficult for us to use your book
on the GNOME website - or within the official GNOME
documentation. 

First and foremost, we are a GNU project (http://www.gnu.org) and, as
such, do not link against *anything* - be it a library, widget, or
document that is not covered by an appropriate free (as in freedom)
license. In the case of documentation that license would have to at
least be comparable to the Free Documentation License
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html).

For a cheaper explanation... we must be able to take your work, rip
it apart, make changes, move it, copy it, place it, and use it however
we see fit without MacMillan a) caring b) suing. This is
counter-productive to most large publishers business model and is
understandable. We can, however make a link to your book from the web
site as an alternative source of documentation as long as MacMillan
places no restrictions on us doing so, or restricts the manner in
which we make such a link.

As to your involvement with the GNOME Documentation Project - we would
LOVE to have you join in the fun and help us make the free
documentation the best we can possibly make it. Please make sure your
contract with MacMillan contains no "Right of First Refusal" clause
before putting any of your GNOME documentation under the FDL and joining
in though - publishers don't often like writers working on the same
topic for someone else.

Hope to see you writing with us soon!

Dave


-- 

          David Mason
        Red Hat AD Labs

        dcm@redhat.com
  http://people.redhat.com/dcm