Yes, it's true that you can't resell copies of The Python Papers for personal profits, but you may derive from it, reproduce and propagate it. You're quite right to point it out.
Licenses are too complicated. I don't believe a license exists which meets the demands of all clients, however should I be wrong on this count, nothing prevents us from using it in future editions. Also, copyright is always held by the original authors, so the works may be relicensed if necessary. We are still working on the copyright agreement with future authors, however at this stage all we are asking from them is the same license which covers the journal. I'm not a true expert in this area, although I'm of course vaguely aware of the GPL and CC. When choosing a license, the editorial board was interested in finding something that could be easily assimilated by authors, and that reflected a general encouragement of the dissemination of information. The point about not being able to be re-used by e.g., the Python documentation website, is a bit of a thorn in my side as I had hoped that we had chosen something which would allow the information to flow through the community. Perhaps people could comment on the following proposition -- if an organisation is Not for Profit, its dealings are therefore Noncommercial? Cheers, -T (Editor-In-Chief) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
