On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 3:02 PM, adam hyde adam@flossmanuals.net wrote:
Will Wikibooks be producing Books of the collection? I thought this would make the WMF a publisher and hence liable for any content...a position I was sure, having seen Oliver Hugot present at Wikimania, was one the foundation wished to avoid?
No, and this is a good distinction to make every now and again: Wikibooks and the WMF won't be doing any publishing, but individual Wikibookians (or other well-wishers) may very well publish books from Wikibooks. In fact, several books from Wikibooks are already published and available for sale from Amazon (Go to amazon.com and do a search for "Wikibooks").
I and a small group of other interested Wikibookians could get together, pick books that are in particularly good condition, and see to it that they were passed on to a willing publisher. Or, another group with similar aims is welcome to take content from Wikibooks (following all licensing guidelines) and publish them without our input. In fact, if any groups wanted to do this, I think it would be acceptable to post limited advertisements for the books on Wikibooks, assuming our community agreed with it.
(also, while i remember. i wrote to oliver and he has agreed to do a presentation to the Wikibooks community as we discussed some time ago ie. a pre-recorded presentation and irc/skype session to ask questions after the presentation has been online for a while...his presentation will be on the topic of legal definition of 'publisher' and what this means to the WMF and others...its also very interesting to FLOSS Manuals, so I will draw in some from the FM community to participate)
Yes, I remember this, but I don't seem to have any of the details anymore. When would such a meeting be held? What organizational help do you need?
--Andrew Whitworth