On Sun, Feb 29, 2004 at 10:59:57AM -0800, wikien-l-request(a)Wikipedia.org wrote:
Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:51:34 -0800 (PST)
From: Geoff Burling <llywrch(a)agora.rdrop.com>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Concise Print Wikipedia (WARNING)
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0402291044550.9514-100000(a)joan.burling.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, zero 0000 wrote:
I haven't really been paying attention, but it seems like the
possibility of a printed snapshot of Wikipedia is under discussion.
I hope you are all very very VERY familiar with the disastrous
experiences of Eric Weisstein when he gave a publisher permission to
print a snapshot of his online mathematics encyclopedia.
See
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/docs/legal.html .
My understanding of this case was that Weisstein thought he was selling
the rights to only _ONE_ version of his online mathematics encyclopedia,
when the lawyers at Chemical Rubber actually snuck language into his
contract that enabled them to claim _ALL_ of his encyclopedia.
I assume that Jimbo, being a somewhat successful businessman, usually
has any contract he considers signing reviewed first by a lawyer. In this
case, I hope he picks a lawyer familiar with publishing law.
Twenty years ago, when I was considering a career in writing, I had the
impression that publishers have an ethical standard higher than the music
industry (where an artist can sell a million copies of an album, & still
make less money than had she/he worked at McDonald's). I am no longer so
sure of that impression.
Jimbo is not in a position to mistakenly sell the exclusive rights to
the Wikipedia, due to the GNU FDL, which he chose when the project
was initiated.
Unless there's some end run around its provisions...and in the unlikely
event that there is, we're in bigger trouble than one specific print
proposal.
--
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Robert Merkel
robert.merkel(a)benambra.org
http://benambra.org
Simpson! Homer Simpson!
He's the greatest guy in history,
From the...town of Springfield
He's about to
hit a chestnut tree.
--The Simpsons
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