Re: [linuxiran] : redhat manuals translation,

[Aryan Ameri]

On Sunday 22 June 2003 12:31, Abbas Izad wrote:
> Aryan, Your argument somehow make sense here

Oh! Thanks god. 

> The reason I asked about it, is that I search for those manuals and
> got only one hit.
> So I downloaded them. I guess these manuals are on redhat site but
> you have to
> register and activate your product to be able to download them, I am
> not sure!
> I like step by step guides through installation and setup in those
> manuals. And yes these manuals changes with every release but not
> completely! This means somebody has to maintain the manuals and
> updating them with each release. Here we see again the need of
> sponsoring and paople dedications.
>
> I guess Kaveh means that you have to granted permission from O'raily
> (or the author) in order
> to go ahead and translate those books and maybe they want some
> royalities (percentage) fees of every
> sold book. Not the cost of buying the book! Am I right, Kaveh?

Well, for languages other than French, German, Japanese, Traditional and 
Simplified Chinese, they do not collect royalties, but yes, surely if 
you want to use OReilly's name, and if you want them to supply 
materials such as e-files to you, so that you can translate the easily, 
then you have to sign an agreement with them. And they will review your 
translation and will approve it. This is just reasonable.

OTOH, Oreilly is by far the most open publication around. They sometimes 
publish their books under Free licenses such as GNU FDL, and those that 
they do not publish under these license, they publish them under a 
special kind of Copyright called "Founder's Copyright" which means, 
books will be put into public domain after 7 years of publication (This 
is exactly like the original US Copyright law, in 1798). 


> I also read redhat's license agreement for the manuals and it says
> somethings like "you are not
> allowed to change or distribute them commercially and blah blah ..."

So, they are not open too. And I bet if you want to translate them, you 
have to at least sign an agreement and let them aprove your 
translation, much like what Oreilly requires.

Cheers

-- 
/* You can always count on Americans to do the 
right thing; - after they've tried everything else.
                         Winston Churchill */
Aryan Ameri