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

[Craig Taylor]

My view : Go for it.  As long as we're not talking trade secrets there
should be nothing preventing you. (Standard I am not a lawyer disclaimers
apply).

Out of courtesy however, do attribute and let individuals reading the book
know the license and authors of the program you're discussing.

Knowledge should be free. That includes the right to sell your understanding
of knowledge.


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
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
> TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
>