I maintain (and have written the bulk of) the alt.video.dvd FAQ
(digital video disc). Lately I've begun to receive requests from
magazine editors or contributors who want to excerpt large portions
of my FAQ. I'm flattered of course, but unsure how best to respond.
Should I say "no," or "sure, have it for free," or "ok, how much will
you pay me?"
The FAQ is freely available on the Web. The idea is to educate
people. My copyright notice follows.
This document may be freely redistributed only in its entirety with
authorship notice and acknowledgements intact. No part of it may be
sold for profit or incorporated in a commercial document without the
permission of the copyright holder. Permission is expressly granted
for complete electronic copies to be made available as an archive or
mirror service on the condition that the copy be kept up to date.
I've put a huge amount of work into the FAQ, so I wouldn't mind being
compensated. On the other hand I'd feel a little guilty since I've
based many parts of it on work and postings from other people. Plus
my ulterior motive for writing the FAQ (other than my altruistic
nature and compulsive need to enlighten people :-) is that I'm
writing a book on the same subject.
I've granted a few requests with the only conditions being that they
credit me as the author and also give credit to the listed
contributors, include the URL of the FAQ on the Web, and send me a
copy of the article so I can see what they did. But I'm starting to
wonder if this is such a good idea. If I did ask for payment or
compensation in some other form, what would be reasonable? (I suppose
I could request that they review my book when it comes out, but that
seems somewhat extortionistic and prejudicial.)
Any opinions? Thanks.
____________________________________________________
Jim "The Frog" Taylor, Director of Information Technology
<mailto:jhtaylor@videodiscovery.com>
Videodiscovery, Inc. - Multimedia Education for Science and Math
Seattle, WA, 206-285-5400 <http://www.videodiscovery.com/vdyweb>
Author of alt.video.dvd FAQ:
<http://www.videodiscovery.com/vdyweb/dvd>
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