Re: DSSSL Documentation Project?

[Martin Bryan <mtbryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 16:44 8/6/97 -0500, B. Tommie Usdin wrote:

>I'm not sure that sort of subterfuge is:
>
>   a) appropriate.
>           Agreeing to cheat on a copyright, especially in a forum
>           with a public archive, is sort of dumb.

The argument as to who owns the copyright of standard, the people who wrote
the text or those that published it in the first place without paying for
it, is a vexed one with those of us who do the work. We have made our
objections plain in public in many more public places than this.

>    b) necessary.
>           It seems to me that ISO has always allowed people to quote
>           from standards, and that in creating documentation for
>           beginning to intermediate users of DSSSL only a relatively small
>           portion of the standard would be relevant.  So, there should
>           no problem with openly quoting as needed.

The point is that if you quote it in bulk text you come up against the 10%
quote ruling. You cannot copy more than 10% of the data into one 'document'.
Which is why you embed it in examples. No example will need more than 10% of
the text of DSSSL.

It would be nice if I did not have to advocate this sort of technique for
being able to reference something that James Clark wrote for free. Having
got him involved in this I am going to continue to suggest ways that people
can capitalize on his work.
----
Martin Bryan, The SGML Centre, Churchdown, Glos. GL3 2PU, UK 
Phone/Fax: +44 1452 714029   WWW home page: http://www.sgml.u-net.com/



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