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To avoid having to mess with complicated
copyright and licensing issues, I will make them very simple. The book
itself is and will remain Open Publication Licensed. That means that
the book itself will remain free to anyone who wishes to use it for
their own no-resale-for-profit purposes. Any work that is contributed
must use the same license. That way I can freely include your work and
everybody is happy. Note well the beverage clause! So far, this has
garnered me a whole two drinks, but one never knows...
This leaves open what will happen regarding non-free publication.
It is entirely possible that one day a publishing house will publish a
paper copy of this book and pay me money for the privilege of doing so.
Note that this will not affect the availability of the book online - it
is just that a paper book is more suitable in many ways for a deskside
reference or a classroom textbook, and besides, you can have it signed
by the author and it works when your laptop batteries are out or you are
off the network.
The ``rule'' for submissions/contributions is that if I sell the book
for money, you can either:
- Let me include your contributed work and make money from it.
Thank you very much! (Obviously I like this one best.)
- Let me include your contributed work but make a small donation to
e.g. the Free Software Foundation or Care in your name out of the
massive profits I thus derive.
- Ask that I not include your work. No problem. If I feel that
the contributed material is really important to include, I'll rewrite
the material in original prose.
- Possibly some other solution exists that the publisher will
suggest. We'll play that by ear.
You don't have to choose now - as long as your contact information is
correct I will ask you if/when the for-profit issue ever becomes real.
Next: Editorial Rights
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Robert G. Brown
2004-05-24