"Kern Sibbald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kern's main concern (correct me if I'm wrong, Kern) is that he doesn't
want someone to be able to publish and sell paper versions of the
manual.
Yes, this is correct, but with the nuance, that I would be very happy to
see the manual published in physical form provided there is an agreement
for a reasonable financial contribution to the project, which should take
into account normal royalties and how much work the publisher (or whoever
transforms it) has to do to get it in a publishable form.
In my other email, I attempt to explain my reasoning behind this.
So basically you want to avoid large companies printing the manual, and then
selling
it at a profit without contributing any of the profit back. After all, if it
weren't
for the project those profits would not exist.
You note how software does not have this problem, as duplicating software
has no cost,
so anybody can publish the software for free. This is obviously not the case
with printed manuals.
The only good way to avoid this problem without harming freedom is to have
the project,
or somebody in conjection with the project publish the manual and provide it
free or
at-cost, and request freewill donation, preferably on the same webpage.
How free printed manuals would avoid comercial competition is obvious.
One way to do the at-cost sales would be to work with a company like FedEx
Kinkos, who can print
and bind (even softcover binding!) on demand, and ship to the customer.
The shipping costs can be minimized by having the kinko's nearest to the
customer
print up the manual.
Considering the relatively small demand, it would be difficult for a
commerical publisher
to undercut the price.
This system would work best if a non-profit provided this service to many
free software projects simultaniously, which would increase the odds
that Fedex would be willing to provide a discount (cutting the profit
somewhat),
especially considering that doing so could qualify as a charitable donation.
Perhaps some organisation such as SPI would consider doing this.
If nothing else many projects would be willing to submit their manuals for
at-cost printing as a service to the end users, especially because it
would not cost that project anything.
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