Subject: Yggdrasil and LDP
From: [email-masked] (Matt Welsh)
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 13:08:56 EDT

Lars, I sent this to you but mistyled your address...

To: [email-masked]
Subject: Yggdrasil Pressure on the LDP
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
In-Reply-To: <[email-masked]>
Organization: Cornell CS Robotics and Vision Laboratory, Ithaca, NY 14850
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
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In comp.os.linux.announce article <[email-masked]>, 
Adam Richter writes:
>
>SUPPORTS FREE SOFTWARE
>
>        For every copy of Third Edition of The Linux Bible sold, one
>pretax dollar (which is a full dollar in most situations, and always a
>full dollar for nonprofits) is set aside to support free software and
>free documentation development.  Of this, 25% will be donated directly to
>the Linux Documentation Project.  The other 75% will be paid in
>proportion to page count, directly to LDP authors whose works are made
>freely redistributable under terms not more restrictive than the GNU
>general public license by September 1, 1995.  Money corresponding to
>the pages not freed by that time will be donated to the Free
>Software Foundation.

I find this tactic of yours to be completely underhanded and quite
disrespectful. In fact, I'm offended to the point where I may not 
give Yggdrasil or the Free Software Foundation permission to publish 
or make profit from any of my own works in the future.

We (the Linux Documentation Project) write and maintain documentation
and manuals for Linux as VOLUNTEERS. I think that you underestimate
the importance of our contribution---without documents such as the
I&GS, very few people would have been able to install and use Linux
in the first place, and your company (as well as many others) would
probably not exist. Without the KHG, many people would be unable to 
contribute by writing kernel device drivers, expanding the functionality
of the system to the point where it is generally useful---again,
a major point which allows you to stay in business. The LDP works 
have been vital in making Linux as popular as it is today, as have
been our efforts in other areas (such as Linux Journal and other 
published works). The success of your company depends very directly
on our volunteer effort, and I think I speak for all of us when I
say that we don't appreciate these inane tactics.

You claim that you "Support Free Software", but you do so in the
rigid and unforgiving manner that the FSF does---no allowance for
other paradigms of distribution, no matter how well they work or
whatever reasons may be behind them. I have already stated my
position on the copyright of the I&GS---the amount of poor judgement
that the businesspeople in the Linux marketplace have used is quite 
astonishing. I've had the I&GS published under a different title,
which is deliberately misleading to the end-user, and I fear what
may happen if I allow the book to be freely modified including 
content. The license of the I&GS and the other LDP manuals allows
me to control the content of the work, which I believe very strongly
reflects my own views and opinions about Linux, as well as my
professional reputation as an author.

Note that the Linux HOWTOs carry no such restriction (with a few
exceptions), so we are not absolutely rigid in our position.

I may still release the I&GS for free modification---if for no
other reason that I don't have time to keep it up-to-date myself.
Still, I worry about proliferation of multiple versions, which
in the long run does not help the Linux community---if all versions
are 95% similar to each other, people won't know which is the
"best" to get. If I have no administrative control over the work,
there's no way to prevent this, and the I&GS ultimately does not 
help as many people as it could.

However, I don't approve of your tactics, and I think that you forget
that these works are still copyrighted by us, and we still have the
ability to control their distribution in whatever ways we choose.
If the LDP as a whole were to decide that Yggdrasil and the FSF may
not publish, distribute, or otherwise use any material from any LDP
works, then I believe your income would drop sharply, and the "Linux
Bible" would cease to exist. You depend on the Linux Bible. We don't 
depend on you. You need to take a very serious look at your position 
vis-a-vis the products of the volunteer writers, programmers, testers, 
and developers of Linux software and documentation before you attempt 
to pressure anybody into changing the copyright on anything. 

My advice is to not push us around any further, because it's bad business 
for you. Believe me---we, the LDP, have a voice. We can let the community 
know that Yggdrasil is playing childish games with the LDP writers---the 
volunteers who work extremely hard to maintain these works. I would like 
to prevent this kind of conflict, of course, but it's up to you. 

If we choose to change the copyrights on the LDP manuals it won't be 
because Yggdrasil is holding donations over our heads. We didn't get 
into this for the money.

In short: back off.

M. Welsh