Wolfgang Uhlig wrote:
I have no idea what's going on, or who removed the books. I didn't
contact Lulu about this myself, but Gabe did (and possibly others as
well); perhaps that had some effect?
Perhaps he didn't like the impact on his "reputation" of the comments
for each book, warning people that they are ripped off ;)
I notice that the clone storefront itself is still there, but all the
books are gone (the links on the left go to an "Item not available"
message). It's possible that the books may return later, in some form,
so I guess we'd better keep an eye on this store.
I am not at all familiar with licences, I must admit (shame), but
shouldn't we discuss a possibility to change our documentation to kind
of "freeware" so that nobody else can make money out of them?
Sorry if this sounds silly to you, it's just an idea.
I tend to agree with Daniel in that this is a consequence of open
source. Either it's open or not, either anyone can make money with
it or no-one. This is just the dark side of the force.
It's like with the many portals that are offering downloads of free
software for a fee. The fee is for their download "service" so the only
way to stop keeping them doing this would be to be more restrictive
with the license. And that would be against the spirit of open source.
One thing is encouraging though. An increasing number of parasites
shows the increasing relevance of the project and the product.
Measures against this behaviour are probably sparse. Mainly
around brand protection, I guess.
Frank
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Frank Peters
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