Re: [OS:N:] Re: Questionaire about the support of students rights and the freedom in the learning environment

On Wed, 2003-08-13 at 10:45, James Michael DuPont wrote:
> I can imagine that the workbooks and questions are copyrighted and
> jealously guarded as consumables. Even if they are simple such example
> programs are under a stronger copyright than other forms of copyrighted
> material. Redhat will not want to publish them.

Well if I was a technical writer hired by Red Hat to write a
book/courseware I probably would want my work copyrighted - if it was
copyleft it would mean that the 1 1/2 years I (and many others) spent
developing the book could be wiped out by a publisher who decided to
reprint the book without giving some of the profit back to the
author/writer.

> But is is not an open standard. Java has repeatly decided not to open
> up to an international standardization process for their own reasons.
> The license agreement to download the java runtime is designed to take
> away the freedoms of the person downloading it. A student should have
> the right to refuse to accept that license, but still be able to use
> the courseware with alternative free products (gjv or kaffee).  The
> FSedu will help them with this process.

Java's closed nature seems to have more to do with Microsoft than it
does with any disdain for open source.  In the past year, especially the
past few months, Sun seems to have really warmed to Linux - adding it to
many of their boxes.  I have a reason to like Sun having recently bought
a beautiful 19" Sun monitor that works wonderfully under Linux!  (best
monitor I have ever owned!)  


> There are many ways to deliver content. Java is not the issue per say,
> but the question is of requirements and license. As far as I can tell,
> the courseware license prevents it from being decompiled and ported to
> a free platform outside of the standard java env. This is an serious
> limitiation.

Just do as Linus does and start from scratch! :-)

> As I said, the free docuementation can be printed out at the leisure of
> the reader. If you have a good laser printer or a copy shop, you can
> print out whatever you need at a much lower prices. If you really want
> a hardcover binding, that will be expensive. But generally a copy shop
> will be cheaper that a hardcover book.

Sometimes HOWTO's and Guides just are not enough or they don't simplify
a topic enough that others can understand the topic.  Writers are people
too.  It's nice to think that anyone can write documentation but there
is more to writing than just typing instructions.  

> The FSEDU project is working on new forms of collaboration and
> distribution of knowledge that will allow the colloborative creating of
> documentation and the eventual creating of printed materials by gradual
> refinement and annotation and review of this public knowledge base.

Sounds promising.  What are you working with DocBook?

Cheers,

Charles


_______________________________________________
Subscription and Archive: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/open-source-now-list/
-
For K12OS technical help join K12OSN:
<https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn>