Subject: Re: Yggdrasil and LDP
From: [email-masked] (Matt Welsh)
To: Linux Documentation Project writers <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 21:48:36 EDT

Greenfie <[email-masked]> writes:
> It isn't really clear to me that Yggdrasil and RMS are colluding to bully
> us into doing anything.  

I can understand this, but due to my past dealings with them I'm fairly
certain it is the case. Adam's "offer" for donations may appear to be
innocent enough, but I feel that it's a continuation of the copyright
disputes we had in the past. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow and get
all of this sorted out.

> In RMS's case, he sees a problem with his view of how free software and
> documentation should work.  To some extent I agree with him.  To some
> extent I see where everybody else is coming from.

So do I. But this is not the way that changes should come about.

>    I think we deserve more respect than that, and Yggdrasil does not
>    respect our position. 
> 
> Then again, I can also see something along the lines of, "We don't really
> believe that the way you're distributing your manuals is the right way of
> doing things.  We want to help out the right way of doing things, but
> giving money to you guys ain't gonna help that."

It's quite obvious to me that this is the case, however...

I don't think it's in the best interests of Yggdrasil to be making
these kinds of decisions for us. My feeling is this---if they don't 
like the manuals as licensed, they shouldn't be printing them. 
They're making plenty of profit on these books, either way. 

Yggdrasil should realize that it is our long efforts which are bringing
in the big bucks for them. If they refuse to support us because we're
not doing things "their way", my reaction is to no longer provide them
with the fruits of our labor. The works are copyrighted by us, and we're 
the ones who took the effort and time to write them. Yggdrasil should do 
things "our way" if they want to continue to make profit off of our 
efforts. 

My feelins is that "influencing" us to change our copyrights amounts to 
extortion. We're the authors and copyright holders here; we are the 
volunteers. Yggdrasil takes advantage of our works by making profit off 
of them, and we allow this---for the good of the community. But I don't 
think we should allow them to turn the tables on us and mandate our 
copyright strategy because they can provide us with donations. 

I feel offended because Adam's "offer" implies that our works aren't 
"good enough" or "free enough" for him, although he continutes to publish 
them and make profits. I'm also offended because he seems to think that 
we depend upon his "generous" donations and are incapable of supporting
ourselves, so he gets to decide what we do for his money.

The moment we allow the vendors and the companies providing donations
to decide our goals for us, we lose all control over the direction of
the documentation---which is the real "freedom" here. Maybe I'm being
too fanatical here, but I don't want to start changing our policies
because of a company such as Yggdrasil. We must maintain control over 
our own works, and we must make the right decisions because they
_are_ right, not because we're promised a monetary reward for it.

mdw