[TriLUG] writing about a OSS project you had nothing to do with

Greg Brown gwbrown1 at gmail.com
Tue Jun 5 15:40:52 EDT 2007


So, Triluggers, I'm wondering would about the ethics of profiting through
writing about a OSS project that you, yourself, had nothing to do with?  Say
I decide to write a book about any OSS project, say, SSH.  Better yet, what
about Small Business Network Management Using OpenNMS.  That project is one
that is managed locally.  What if I did decide to write such a book?  Could
I be stopped or could the project pressure the publisher using their OSS
licenses to have the book stopped?  Or am I just free like the wind to write
such a book and profit personally?  For the purposes of this argument let's
say I would keep all the money and not return any to the project (just for
the sake of argument, people).

What do you think?  I can't imagine all the OSS related books were blessed
by the specific OSS projects yet there seems to be something not quite right
about it.

Greg



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