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

[Matt Frye]

Having written about many open source projects, I observe the
following guidelines:

1) give credit where credit is due.  when I wrote about python, i made
sure to mention guido .
2) if you're writing a book about open source, it's nice to donate a
percentage of the proceeds to the project.  you don't *have* to, but
they didn't *have* to make it open source.
3) include them.  most developers or project leaders are unlikely to
write about their projects in the way you would write a book or an
article.  interview them.  get the facts straight.

Your editor can provide you with many more tidbits.

Matt Frye

On 6/5/07, Greg Brown <gwbrown1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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