Hallo list at the moment I'm writing a course for scribus 1.4 so following all this discussion, I ask myself, if I'm actually allowed to do so.
I wrote courses for Gimp (2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6), KompoZer (0.7.10,.0.8b3) and Calc (3.4), and a sort of course (about 100 pages) for 1.3.3 to use for teaching classes (all German). I'm not using the manual. I haven't found it, yet, so I'm struggeling a bit here and there and try out a lot on the program. I haven't found out what the new tool is there for, for example, but I will.. sooner or later ;) Just to add my experience to this discussion about becoming rich on selling manuals/courses for OpenSource Projects... Everybody loves the programs, everybody loves my courses, but only as long as they are free. Not a lot of people are willing to pay for them. So believe me, you don't become rich with them. People believe more in "free bear" than in free speach ;) I do agree, that if somebody uses somebody elses work, he should at least mention his name, put a link to the page... But don't it won't make anybody rich ;) >> On 04/11/2012 07:36 AM, ale rimoldi wrote: >>> ... because there is a long history of people taking free scribus >>> resources and making profit out of it.... >>> >>> let's get real: there is almost no chance that somebody can make a >>> huge profit from taking the manual, printing it and selling it. >>> >> If the docs are worth nothing, then why this ongoing argument about >> the particulars of its licensing? > in my eyes scribus docs are very valuable but have no commercial value. > > or at least have no commercial value that would lead to profits that are > higher than the effort a publishing house would have to put in the > promotion of a manual. > > ciao > a.l.e > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:07:10 -0400 > From: john Culleton<John at wexfordpress.com> > To: scribus at lists.scribus.net > Subject: Re: [scribus] the docs license > Message-ID:<20120411110710.612e8587 at sda7.wexfordpress.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > On Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:24:36 +0400 > Alexandre Prokoudine<alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com> wrote: > >> On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 6:15 PM, john Culleton wrote: >> >>> Gimp had a huge manual that you could download or buy in paper >>> form. Today's manual is online, and in html format. It is pretty >>> much kept up to date. It is not downloadable unless you want to >>> deal with converting a manual in html format. Also the content >>> is in individual chunks of html, easy to access online but tedious >>> to download in its entirety. >> First of all, we don't sell the official user manual. It's done by >> someone else who asked and got a confirmation that it's legal. >> >> There's also nothing particularly tedious about downloading a PDF >> file. >> >>> So what model should Scribus follow? In the case of Inkscape the >>> manual author and the publisher of same is one person. >> No and no. >> >> 1. Tav's manual is a de-facto manual, not de jure. It was so easy to >> refer to the online version that it kind of became the default manual. >> But it's not a community project (which is fine with me). >> >> 2.. Tav is not the publisher. >> >> Alexandre Prokoudine >> http://libregraphicsworld.org > > Well, when you click on "help" in Inkscape it offers you the > Tavmong Bah manual online. So de facto is close enough. From the > user's perspective it is very similar to the Gimp online manual > or even the Scribus online manual. You click on help, and then on > the online manual. > > Tav caused his product to be published. But he is the author and > not the publisher. I was sloppy with my terminology. > > I did not say that downloading a pdf is tedious. I said that > downloading a manual consisting of many individual > html pages, then converting and assembling them in printable form > (pdf) is tedious. Dealing with a printed manual and a separate > batch of downloaded color illos is also tedious. > > AFAIK we don't have a Tavmong Bah, capable of writing a > comprehensive manual, willing to put it online for free, > and capable of getting it published commercially. And our mutual > experience with the publication of "The Scribus Manual" was not > good. The "publisher" apparently had never published a book > before, and has never published a paper book since. Any of a dozen > micro publishers on the self-publishing list or the > pub-forum list could have done better, including the undersigned. > So if Scribus ever goes that route again a publisher with a track > record of some kind would be an improvement. > -- Anke Lange An der Landwehr 25 49076 Osnabr?ck Telefon 0541 6004299 gimp-werkstatt at gmx.de www.kreativ-workshops.net www.gimp-werkstatt.de www.kompozer-web.de
