I've noticed with other wikis that it takes a considerable effort
before the average user is "sold" on the concept, enough to go through
the learning curve for the various tags. Unfortunately, IIRC wiki tags
are just enough different from HTML and other tagging taxonomies that
it can be confusing at first.
That said, I don't do HTML for email and I don't bother with extensive
formatting for wiki pages. (HTML email is ripe for malicious little
"surprises" hidden in it, especially for that security black hole
called Windows!).
Now, about copyright. There is a question whether a layout file is
capable of being copyrighted. It is *not* documentation in the usual
sense of the word--nor is it really any groundbreaking code (from a
legal standpoint).
Consider the situation with fonts, for example. The font *name* can be
copyrighted, but not the actual code bits--outlines and hints and
such.
I suspect rather strongly that it may be the same thing here, although
I have not practiced law for about fifteen years, and intellectual
copyright is a moving target.
As I mentioned before, it might be worth checking out the Creative
Commons license if what you want is to preserve a record of your
authorship but permit others to use it without charge--and preclude
someone else from trying to copyright your work to extract cash from
the unwary.
Of course, it may be just as easy to use one of the versions of the
GPL or the LGPL ("lesser general public license). Or, if you have no
objection to the work being included in a commercial activity, the BSD
license has much to recommend it.
All of which said, I wouldn't worry about it personally for a layout
file--with the possible exception of for a particular and highly
specialized and extremely commercial prpose. Then, I might be
tempted--for only then would it be worthwhile to consider suit to
protect copyright.
Since I am so new to TeX and to LyX, I have much to go to surmount the
learning curve--but as I begin to dabble in style files, I am
seriously considering doing a style file for the DITA XML
architecture. That would be extremely interesting for technical
documentation use, I think, especially when coupled with a decent tool
for accessing various code topics and constructing topic maps
therefrom.
Oh, and Christian--I would suggest you be sure to make the copyright
info static with editing disallowed. Legal boilerplate is *not* the
place for community-wide editing!
David
On 6/2/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Wiki documentation
* Wiki sandbox
>> Eh... I'd probably answer GPL, but I have no real clue. This
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License
>
> Is there a way to modify all of the wiki pages so that they link the
> copyrights page you mention?
I've already added a link at the bottom of the sidebar with the text
"Copyrights" that points to this wiki page.
http://wiki.lyx.org/Site/Copyrights
If that's not prominent enough, just let me know where you think it'd look
good and I can move the link to that place.
