Publishing issues

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Henry van Cleef (vancleef@bga.com)
Thu, 19 Jan 1995 23:39:55 -0600 (CST)

As J.D. Falk said
> If this becomes commonplace, who's to say who has the rights to
> write a FAQ for a specific group, and be paid for the work? Say, for
> example, I were to write a competing FAQ with the same topics as yours (I
> have no intention of doing this, don't worry) and offered it to the
> publishers for a lower price than that which they are paying you?
> This is an almost horrifying thought: the "sacred tradition" of
> FAQ maintainers, tainted by gross capitalism! Well, okay, ignore my
> hyperbole. But 'tis still worth considering....
>
Paid for the work? Capitalism? I handle what is presently a 5-part
faq; write 3 sections, and handle posting of two sections written by
others who are clearly identified in the text. I've been asked by some
club newsletter editors for permission to reprint my work, which I've
given them, with the stipulation that I be identified as author, and
that any changes and editing be clearly marked as such. I don't do the
FAQ for money.

Under current US law, my material is copyright in my name, even though
I don't include a copyright notice. I am aware that the material
probably has commercial value, even though I have given rights to
reprint for free. But if I were to seek out a publisher, I would
probably do substantial editing and rewriting, thus, my only concern
would be the thing that started this thread: an outright plagiarism and
republication as the work of another person.

In the case of my material, I think there is a grey area, in that I am
writing up a lot of "how to" stuff about designing and operating vacuum
tube circuits that is not taught in the schools these days, but a lot
of my material is covered in published sources from the 1920-55 era,
some of which is still in copyright as published. While I don't copy
the material verbatim, any publication in a scholarly form would
require attribution of sources which I haven't given in the FAQ. 

-- 
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Hank van Cleef  vancleef@bga.com  vancleef@tmn.com
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