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[h2o-discuss] Fwd: Mail from Wired News
> Tuyet A. Tran sent you this message and story from
> Wired News.
>
>
> W I R E D N E W S
> - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Expanding the Universe of Ideas
> by Oscar S. Cisneros
>
> A new public license -- the Open Publication License
> -- promises to bring the power of the open-source
> software movement to video, audio, and text while
> still preserving authors' rights to profit from the
> calluses of their creative hands.
>
> "It's all about being able to access information for
> free," said David Wiley, founder of Opencontent.org,
> where the latest draft of the license will be made
> available for public comment later this week.
>
> The Open Publication License, or OPL, allows
> creators in any medium to release their work into
> the public domain for reproduction and modification,
> while providing the means to preserve their rights
> to the printed, commercial versions of their work.
>
> Under two optional provisions in the license,
> creators can restrict the sale of printed versions
> of their work and prevent others from substantially
> modifying it. By default, however, there are no
> limits to digital distribution and reproduction,
> provided the creators are credited for their
> original work.
>
> The license's strength stems from the power of peer
> review and derivative works. When ideas are free
> from the fences and hedges of copyright law, a
> beautiful multiplicity of expression ensues, Wiley
> said.
>
> "If I could analyze your data in some way that's of
> use to me -- instead of spending another two years
> re-gathering that data -- we could collaborate and
> share our work with others," he said. "There's no
> point in every professor reinventing the wheel each
> time he starts a course. If there were building
> blocks of information, we could increase the quality
> of education."
>
> When authors submit their work to an academic
> journal, the publication typically devours all of
> the rights to the text in perpetuity, leaving only
> few lines to be quoted here and there by future
> authors, Wiley said.
>
> But, by allowing people to create derivative works
> from such publications, each researcher's effort
> contributes to an aggregate of knowledge usable by
> all.
>
> "My goal is to see this open publishing license at
> these journals," Wiley said. "The idea is to get the
> data and get people to share it, just like they have
> been for software."
>
> The Open Publication License formalizes the peer
> review process that has driven software development
> on the Internet for more than 30 years, said Eric
> Raymond, one of the co-founders of the Open Source
> Initiative for software.
>
> "How do you allow companies to make profits and
> allow electronic distribution and modification so
> that the full peer review process can operate? The
> Open Publication License allows you to do that,"
> Raymond said.
>
> "This is all part of the process of the Internet
> culture learning to work with the market and
> corporations for the betterment of both."
>
> Where Wiley dreams of open-source academic research,
> Raymond's primary interest in the license is for use
> with the software documentation accompanying
> open-source software. Copyright law, he said, has
> manacled some documentation so that it can only be
> purchased in book form, while other, sometimes
> mismatched, documentation can only be found on the
> Web.
>
>
> Among the first texts to be released under the
> license will be GTK+/GNOME Development, a book that
> will see publication by New Riders Publishing in
> late August, said the company's executive editor,
> Laurie Petrycki.
>
> "If you're providing something that can be reviewed
> and modified, it can be beneficial to everyone
> involved," Petrycki said. "You're going into
> business with the ability to give something back."
>
> New Riders Publishing will follow GTK+/GNOME
> Development with Samba Administration, a book to be
> released under the OPL 12 months after printing, she
> said.
>
> While OPL books fit best with open-source causes,
> the publishing model is not without perils for the
> publishing community, Petrycki said. There is always
> the danger another publisher will snatch and reprint
> the book's full text with the OPL's blessing.
>
> And that, says O'Reilly and Associates founder Tim
> O'Reilly, is exactly what happened when his company
> released the Linux Network Administrator's Guide
> under the General Public License in the 1995. Two
> competing publishers quickly reprinted the book and
> offered it at a lower cost, he said.
>
> "If your goal is to spread information, then that's
> great. But if you're a business it's not a viable
> option," O'Reilly said. "We have some evidence that
> its being freely available hurts sales."
>
> An optional clause in the OPL gives authors the
> right to prevent others from producing commercial
> print versions of their work -- a fact that assuaged
> only some of O'Reilly's concerns. Companies like
> itknowledge.com, which offers free and paid access
> to collected online resources, might still exploit
> the terms of the OPL, he said.
>
> "Simply restricting printing rights is not
> sufficient because there are people making
> competitive, commercial use of works on the Web," he
> said. "I guess I would look for some kind of
> commercial activity clause. I believe it's important
> for the copyright holder to have the option of
> choice."
>
> O'Reilly said he believes the open-source process
> could be improved by the green paper carrot offered
> by the business world.
>
> "I support the hacker culture," he said. "And I
> actually think that the best way to do that is to
> create an economic incentive instead of relying on
> volunteerism."
>
>
>
>
>
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> W I R E D N E W S
>
> Wired News is a real-time news service offering
> news
> briefs and in-depth reporting on politics,
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> and technology. For the most up-to-date coverage
> on the
> digital world, go to ...
> http://www.wired.com/news/
> Copyright 1999 Wired Digital, Inc.
>
>
>
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