And indeed, my apologies to my fellow FAQ maintainers if this has strayed
too far from the essential interests of this mailing list and is now off
in the left field of arbitrary philisophical musings.
In order to try to move the discussion forward I will assume that no
one questions:
(a) the legal *and* moral requirement to obtain the permission of the
FAQ author/editor before reprinting or otherwise using the FAQ
beyond "fair use"; and
(b) the right or privilege of a FAQ author/editor to arbitrarily
withhold such permission.
If you disagree with either of these assumption then I should be pleased to
defend them. Since, however, I do not think Freeman or others are arguing
these points I will move on.
It seems to me the key question posed by Freeman is "why might a FAQ author
who has decided not to make money from his FAQ prevent another from doing
so".
A couple of asides:
1. Vince Skahan has said "The author's desires and/or constraints don't have
to be justified to anybody.... Nobody has the 'right' to question the
author's motives.".
While I agree that the author's desires do not have to be justified (see
point (b) above), I think Skahan goes too far. Anyone can question
motives, they just have no 'right' to an answer. Freeman's question
is valid and interesting, but anyone can refuse to answer. Some may even
wish I had so refused. :-)
2. Note that Freeman has been careful to say "X decides not to *ever* make
money from the FAQ" [emphasis mine]. It ought not to be assumed that
because someone has not asked for money in the past, nor taken any steps
to profit from his FAQ to date, that he is renouncing all future
remuneration from his FAQ.
Indeed, someone who has not made money in the past but has some hope of
making money in the future might refuse permission to reprint his FAQ
because it might prejudice his ability to profit from his FAQ in the
future.
The argument presented by Freeman explicitly indicates that the FAQ
author/editor has (irrevocably) renounced all future claim on remuneration
from his FAQ. Otherwise it is trivial to suggest valid motivations for
refusing and the discussion becomes much less interesting.
So examing the essential question posed by Freeman I can suggest one
possible motive in addition to those collected by Freeman to date:
The FAQ author/editor believes that in a "fair and just" society people's
earnings ought to bear some relationship to their effort and/or contribution
to society and that publishing for profit work that has been done by others
without compensating them is something that is not "fair" or "just" and
something that ought not to be encouraged.
By giving permission for someone to profit from the work of others without
compensation the FAQ author/editor might feel he is encouraging someone to
act in a manner which is less beneficial to society as a whole than if the
publisher is unable to profit from the FAQ and had to do something more
productive and useful in order to earn a living.
If Kamens or others feel this discussion is no longer of interest to a
significant number then I should be pleased to move the discussion to
private e-mail.
regards
g.
pajari@Faximum.COM -*- Editor of the comp.dcom.fax FAQ
George Pajari / Faximum Software / Tel: +1 (604) 925-3600 / Fax: ... 926-8182
1497 Marine Drive, Suite 300 / West Vancouver, BC / Canada V7T 1B8
[
Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive |
Search Mail Archive |
Authors |
Usenet
]
[
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997
]
© Copyright The Landfield Group, 1997
All rights reserved