FAQ Redistribution policy

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Olaf Titz (uknf@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de)
Sat, 23 Jul 1994 17:03:04 +0200

> but it seems there's not much one can do about it. I don't think they're
> going to recall the CD's if one or more authors complain.
> Maybe it's time for some standard rtfm.mit.edu policy on the distribution/
> publication of FAQs that applies to the mirrors as well?

I think this is necessary. The interesting point is *how* this policy
should look like, and how to get the many FAQ maintainters to agree on
this ;-)

Personally, I would like a policy along the lines of "you can
redistribute it freely provided you
- don't change the text in any way,
- include the author's/maintainer's name and email address,
- include the posting date and Message-ID,
- include the complete aux. header
(the last two for reference purposes, esp. for telling how outdated a
version you got...)
- include a reference to rtfm.mit.edu and news.answers.

(The WWWized FAQ archive at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/
faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html misses the first three points by starting
just with the aux. header and reformatting the text into HTML. I'm not
sure if this is already to be considered damage.)

> SimTel has some sort of policy regarding CD distributions of their archive,
> maybe that can be used as a guideline. I don't care much for a part of the
> profit (if any), although I'd like a complimentary book or CD, but think
> that the goal of such a policy would be to help maintain rtfm.

I agree in this points.

Olaf

-- 
___     olaf@bigred.ka.sub.org - uknf@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
__ o      <a href="http://rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uknf/">click</a>
__/<_     also: s_titz@ira.uka.de - uknf@dkauni2.bitnet - praetorius@irc
_)>(_)_________  "now i find that most of the time love's not enough in itself"

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