Re: DSSSL Documentation Project?

[Tony Graham <tgraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 15 Jun 1997 01:26 -0400, Paul Prescod wrote:
 > Tony Graham wrote:
 > > Another side of this vexing question is, if someone places a large
 > > chunk of work under the banner of the DSSSL Documentation Project,
 > > retains the copyright, and receives contributions and enhancements
 > > from other people working under the same banner, can they use that
 > > material elsewhere for their own benefit?  Can they do so and still
 > > expect to receive contributions towards a second edition?
 > 
 > I think that authors and contributors should work that out. In cases
 > like this the DSSSL documentation project should be "just" a banner, a
 > website and a community, not a legal entity. Otherwise it gets too
 > complex. In practice, if we let authors and contributors "fight it out",
 > they don't. Authors are glad to have contributions and contributors are
 > glad to help out.

I've always figured the documentation thing should be just a banner,
and I really don't think we should make the project into a legal
entity.  Right now we just need to sort things out well enough to
start.

I'm not sure what you mean by "authors and contributors should work
that out."  People shouldn't have to scrutinize each author's
copyright to work out whether or not they're happy to work on a
particular part.  The banner of the project should include, as you
suggest, a "standard" copyright notice, but it should apply to
everything under that banner.

 > One thing that might be useful is a "standard" copyright notice that
 > gives people the ability to print out the documentation for educational
 > purposes but not to sell it. I would like to put my work under such a
 > license but don't really know the legalese.

Perhaps we should base our legalese on someone else's legalese.  Can
anyone provide some examples?

Regards,


Tony Graham
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Tony Graham, Consultant
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                         Phone: 301-231-6931
6010 Executive Blvd., Suite 608                     Fax:   301-231-6935
Rockville, MD USA 20852                 email: tgraham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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