I think many people outside the US and the people inside the US have
very different attitudes about this stuff. The US is a VERY litiginous(sp?)
land, so we have all learned to worry about "covering our posteriors".
The whole thing about publishing the FAQ, would sound different if this
were the case: Jim-Bob provides a service...a "public domain" archive on
floppy (can you say Fred Fish?) He tells everyone that if they want to be
on his disk that they should send to him. The only thing he gets out of
it is access to some of the best out there, and his name gets known. Now
one day Jin-Bob finds some information that he wants to include in his
archive disk...he writes to the author, and says "I'd like to include your
work in my archive. I only charge customers for the cost of the media and
shipping"
Jim-Bob isn't making anything on this deal, and neither is the author.
*MOST* of us would say "Ok, go ahead, but make sure that my disclaimers
and all that are left intact."
The problem is NOT the distribution of the information I and the people
who have contributed to my FAQ have worked on, its someone *ELSE*
making a profit on work that *WE* have done while we make no profit
ourselves. If I volunteer to collect information (or newspapers, or
aluminum cans or...) for some group, then I have no reason to ask for
money for that work, BUT, if someone *ELSE* besides that group,
suddenly starts making a profit, on my donated labor, then I have
a problem with it.
Mike Bartolone
bartlone@med.ge.com
FAQ maintainer for the bonsai FAQ.
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