[kwlug-disc] Linux-Format Magazine

[unsolicited]

Brent - well said.

Chris - don't also forget that bandwidth costs real $. In the end, 
that factor comes into play.

Otherwise, especially with what Brent says, we would all be hosting 
ourselves everything GPLed ever. But in the end, the ISP costs real $.

R. Brent Clements wrote, On 03/04/2009 6:16 PM:
> A truely "free software licence" would imply that portions of the
> work, namely articles, could be freely used under the same conditions
> that code segments can be used in free software.  Obviously they don't
> want their articles highjacked and republished.
> 
> I would evaluate their actions this way--They would like to give away
> this issue of their magazine in electronic form over the internet as a
> promotion.  Although they wish to retain copyright control over their
> work, they believe that the use of an existing DRM scheme is not in
> the best interest of this promotion.  By releasing the document
> without a DRM they are consigned to the fact that distribution that
> they cannot track or control will take place, and the benefits of the
> promotion outweigh the problems that might arise.
> 
> Also keep in mind that the disc that is included will certainly
> contain only free software that is included on the disk under the
> terms of the GPL or other F/LOSS licence, and of course that licence
> will still apply to this download.
> 
> Brent
> 
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Chris Frey <cdfrey at foursquare.net> wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 11:36:59AM -0500, Gary Walsh wrote:
>>> The current issue of Linux-Format Magazine and its attached CD is
>>> available for free bittorrent download till 23:59:59 GMT today.
>>>
>>> http://www.tuxradar.com/content/linux-format-free-download-24-hours-only
>> Interesting, thanks for the link.  From the comments on the site:
>>
>>        Catch or no catch?
>>        ConcernedCarrot (not verified) - March 3, 2009 @ 6:34pm
>>
>>        "(legally at least!)"
>>        Are you hinting that it will not be legal for me to share my
>>        downloaded copy with other people? How does this reflect the
>>        "No DRM. No cost. No catches."-line?
>>
>>        Re: Catch or no catch?
>>        TuxRadar - March 3, 2009 @ 6:56pm
>>
>>        There will be no DRM on it, meaning that you can run it on any
>>        device you want and it won't "time out" or something horrible
>>        like that. It's yours. We're giving you a personal copy for
>>        free. We're not giving away the copyright to the article, if
>>        that's what you're asking - that means you can't redistribute
>>        the PDFs freely. This isn't a "catch", this is just standard
>>        copyright law.
>>
>>        However clearly without any DRM there's nothing stopping you
>>        from giving them to everyone, torrenting them, printing them,
>>        selling them, whatever. We'd rather everyone obtained the PDFs
>>        directly from us, but we can't stop you redistributing them for
>>        eternity. If someone does decide to put the whole thing on The
>>        Pirate Bay in 48 hours, I doubt we'd be particularly upset! ;)
>>
>>        This is something that Magnatune pioneered and we're happy to
>>        follow their lead.
>>
>> This confuses me.  It almost looks like they are encouraging someone to
>> "pirate" their magazine and put it on the Pirate Bay.  This doesn't make a
>> lot of sense to me... why not just keep their own torrent server going?
>> Why not make this issue truely digitally free?  With a free software
>> license.  In this case, they could at least track the popularity of their own
>> free offer, instead of making it a limited offer and forcing those that want to
>> share into the pirate realm.
>>
>> If they really would "rather everyone obtained the PDFs directly from us"
>> why make it a limited offer?  (Other than to drive up peak demand, which
>> could be another promotional tactic.)
>>
>> They could make this a promotional thing.  One issue a year is made permanently
>> available via torrent in a PDF format.  This would be a great way for someone
>> to try it out before subscribing.
>>
>> Am I the only one out to lunch here? :-)  It's like they are scared of losing
>> control, so they only open the gate for a few minutes, not realizing the
>> horse has already bolted.