[Linkbat-writers] Copyrights and Licenses

[James M. <lin...@ji...>]

Hi All!

Apparently there is some confusion about the licensing and copyright for the 
tutorial and linkbat project, in general. 

As you may or may not know, the majority of the content first appeared in my 
book "Linux User's Resource" and therefore falls within my contract and I am 
legally prohibited from "publishing" it without the permission of my 
publisher. They gave me permission to provide it on the web site, but that is 
all I can do legally until my publisher gives me the rights back or allows me 
to release it under some other license. I have no choice in the matter, as I 
am legally bound by this contract. However, I am working hard to get the 
rights back or permission to release it under a public license.

Since the publisher said the book would not be re-published, my editor said it 
should not be a problem. It **should** be just a matter of time and I will 
make it available under a GPL-like license. However, all of the stuff that 
was not included in the book and all material from other people is not 
covered by that contract. I understand your concerns about working on a 
project  where (currently) much of the material cannot be made freely 
available. Not to dimish your concerns, I want to say that the key is 
providing the information to others and not necessarily allowing them to copy 
the files. That is, it is the teaching others about Linux that is the goal of 
this site. Still, I am working on getting the right back to make the material 
freely available.

Also keep in mind the difference between a copyright and a license. The 
copyright basically says that you are the creator of the material and nothing 
about who can use it for what purposes. I am the copyright holder of the 
material, but I am still prohibited from publishing it because of the 
licensing agreement. Simply stating that a document you right is copyrighted 
by you is generally sufficient. However, this says nothings about the 
license.
 
Another thing is that all of the "data", such as the questions and answers, 
"Did You Know?", More Info, as well as the code will all be open source. 
Also, all new materal that I provide will be available under the GNU Free 
Documentation License (www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html). The two sections I 
wrote "Working with the System" and "Easing the Transition" consist of 
material that is licensed by the GFDL. 

The display code allows for different licenses as well as multiple authors and 
therefore multiple licenses for any page. I want to be able to give each 
author the freedom to choose under which license their material is released 
and not force them to release it under something that I chose. 

For the editors and researchers this is less of an issue, as they are not 
producing documentation. However, it effects them directly as they are 
working on material that may have a restricted license. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or you need 
clarification on anything I talked about

Regards,

Jim 
-- 
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"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your
character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others
think you are." -- John Wooden
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