[email protected] schrieb:
The main argument contra - as I recall it - was that PDFs can be
illegally
copied, and this was used to wipe away all the possible advantages.
That's true only for people that make their living from writing and
selling books. When a program/project is available for free, why
shouldn't the documentation come for free as well? There is no real
need that the book writers should earn money, while the coders should
not.
Publishing a book costs money. Be it in PDF or printed.
I don't see such costs. Webspace is needed for the documentation as well
as for the project itself, and an advertisement can be put into the
project's homepage.
Selling copies is more complicated, but not a real cost factor.
The editor makes his/her living from publishing books. It is her initiative
to publish this. The book is not the documentation of Lazarus.
I don't see a need for publishers nowadays, when everything can be done
over the web. In former times publishing was expensive, and required
more expertise, machinery, infrastructure, connections and management
than nowadays. What remains is readily offered by companies, which
handle the storage, advertising and payments for binaries, like programs
or eBooks. They only ask for a percentage for every sale, so that the
income is diminuished, but other (lost) investments are not required.
As an analogy:
PHP is free. The documentation of PHP is free. But there exist many
books about PHP. You must pay for these books.
This is why I thought about selling documentation on FPC/Lazarus, as
kind of an service. There is nothing bad or unethic about selling
services, which fill the gap between a "naked" project and its users.
The real advantages, offered by such an service, determine how much a
user is willing to pay for it.
DoDi
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