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Legal situation: articles in Etch release magazines



This is in response to both Samuel and Martin:  did the publishers say 
anything about the legal situation?
 * will the articles be © by the authors or will the magazines want the 
copyright?
 * will authors get some $$$?
 * will translators get some $$$ if they translate an article for another 
one of the magazines?
 * or will we assign rights on the articles to Debian (SPI) and have the 
magazines pay Debian?
 * will the magazines want some sort of exclusivity?  Will we grant this to 
them?

I'd propose something like the following:
 * Authors keep the © and deal with the magazines individually, if at all 
   possible retaining the right to use the same article in another magazine,
   at least in a different country and/or in translation.
 * we discuss here so that we don't write the same article twice.
   (this includes translations)
 * we will not publish the articles on the web for (90?) days after etch 
   release, so that we give those magazine editors some reward, but tell the
   magazine publishers that we'll want to publish those articles after that.
   (under a Free license - is there a suitable one for such texts?)
 * first item here implies that authors get the $$$ if publishers are 
   inclined to offer money.  Donation of this money to Debian is entirely
   mandatory^Wvoluntary ;-)

That way the magazines get a collection of good articles, but we still get 
to see them.  Set up a corner on www.debian.org to collect them?

Why not do more through the Debian project and its legal bodies?  
Individuals can take quick decisions.  And after all, the articles will be 
opinions/experiences etc. of the authors and not official statements by the 
project anyway.

cheers
-- vbi

-- 
He's just like Capistrano, always ready for a few swallows.

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