Subject: Re: LDP and FSF and copyrights
From: [email-masked] (Matt Welsh)
To: Linux Documentation Project writers <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 1995 11:40:34 EDT

I'm having further problems witrh publishers who want to modify the I&GS 
in ways that I don't deem appropriate.

A potential publisher writes to me:
> Matt Welsh writes:
> >What kind of "non-slackware" stuff is there? If you want to change the
> >title like this, however, I'd ask that you make it clear that it is 
> >based on "Linux Installation and Getting Started v2.2.2".
> 
> that would be fine.  i'm not sure what kind of "non-slackware" stuff there
> is, but [1/2] jokingly, i want to do this to the book:
> 
> sed s/linux/slackware/g
> 
> of course, the slackware slackware specific section will read a little
> funny then...  :-)

This particular publisher also wants to rename the book "The Slackware
Insatallation Guide" and remove all references to other distributions.

I don't see any way I can prevent publishers from mangling the book
like this, if I place it under a more GPL-like license. Changing the 
entire work to talk only about "Slackware" goes very much against my 
philosophy and policy of attmpting to point readers in the direction 
of what distribution works best for them. This publisher seems to want 
readers to only hear about their distribution, and to equate "Linux"
with "Slackware".

This is similar to some publisher placing paragraphs at the beginning of 
each chapter saying, "The Foobar Linux Distribution is by far the best 
one out there.  Therefore, for the remainder of this section we will only 
refer to it..."

There are far too many ways in which people can corrupt my intent and
misrepresent my goals in writing the I&GS. I have yet to hear any 
suggestions from interested parties (that is, Adam Richter) as to how
I can make my book more "free" yet protect myself from this kind of
hype.

mdw