Open-Source Documentation and Copyright

[Alex Chaffee <gu...@stinky.com>]

I've taken on the task of reorganizing the Tomcat documentation.  I
have some questions involving licensing and copyright on submitted
materials.  I'm not quite sure how the Apache license applies to
publishing material outside the regular code distribution.  In
particular, I'd like to reserve the right for a doc author to publish
docs he writes as standalone articles, or as chapters in a book, and
maybe even get paid for that; at the same time, I want to preserve the
rights of the project to keep the docs free/open and in the distro,
and for other authors (and the Apache Foundation) to get credit where
credit is due.

Assuming that the documentation is organized as a series of files,
where each file has a primary author (Alice) who is explicitly named
at the time of the file's creation...

I'd like to list a few :-) scenarios and ask you whether the license
allows/disallows/doesn't apply to each.

Alice publishes...
    - original file verbatim
    - original file slighly revised or trimmed down
    - file as revised (but not rewritten) by other authors
    - file written by other author (Oliver)
    - a large part of the documentation set, perhaps edited, revised,
      or trimmed to suit the needs of the
    - entire documentation set, edited
    - entire documentation set, verbatim

as...
    - a page on Alice's own Web site
    - an article in an online magazine
    - an article in a print magazine
    - a chapter in a book authored solely by Alice
    - a chapter in a book with other chapters written by other primary authors
    - an entire book

for...
    - free
    - a flat payment
    - ongoing royalties

citing...
    - only the author (Alice)
    - "just" the Apache project
    - the Apache project with a link to the original documentation
    - the Apache project and all individual authors
    - the Apache project, all individual authors, and all editors
      (names culled from CVS if necessary)

My reading of the Apache license is that all of the scenarios are
allowed, as long as you cite something like "This product includes
software developed by the Apache Software Foundation
(http://www.apache.org/)" (or maybe "software and documentation") but
I may be missing something.

Does this mean that if a publisher wanted to take the whole doc tree
and publish it verbatim, and charge $49.95 a copy, he could?  Would he
also have to include the source code, maybe as a CD-ROM insert?

Finally, once Alice has published a revised version -- say, as a book
in print -- then does the Apache project have the right to pull all
her changes back in to the CVS tree, even if she doesn't want them to?

Thanks!

  - Alex

-- 
Alex Chaffee                       mailto:alex@jguru.com
jGuru - Java News and FAQs         http://www.jguru.com/alex/
Creator of Gamelan                 http://www.gamelan.com/
Founder of Purple Technology       http://www.purpletech.com/
Curator of Stinky Art Collective   http://www.stinky.com/


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Re: Open-Source Documentation and Copyright

[Peter Donald <do...@apache.org>]

Hi,

IANAL so take this with a grain of salt...

On Thu, 12 Jul 2001 04:14, Alex Chaffee wrote:
> Assuming that the documentation is organized as a series of files,
> where each file has a primary author (Alice) who is explicitly named
> at the time of the file's creation...
>
> I'd like to list a few :-) scenarios and ask you whether the license
> allows/disallows/doesn't apply to each.
>
> Alice publishes...
>     - original file verbatim
>     - original file slighly revised or trimmed down

no problem with above

>     - file as revised (but not rewritten) by other authors
>     - file written by other author (Oliver)
>     - a large part of the documentation set, perhaps edited, revised,
>       or trimmed to suit the needs of the
>     - entire documentation set, edited
>     - entire documentation set, verbatim

the second group requires that the author acknowledge Apache and live by 
license (ie in your case can not use the name Tomcat in title of work without 
permission). 

It also means that copyright notices can not be removed. Authorship 
statements can be removed but you can not state that someone else is the 
author.


> as...

the as part is largely irrelevent unless I am missing something ;)


> for...

I think for is also ignorable


> citing...
>     - only the author (Alice)

only if the only work published was done by original author

>     - "just" the Apache project

legally viable but would irritate the subproject ;)

>     - the Apache project with a link to the original documentation

+1

>     - the Apache project and all individual authors

+1

>     - the Apache project, all individual authors, and all editors
>       (names culled from CVS if necessary)

editors are not necessary IMHO. If they had made significant changes they 
would have added themselves as authors (or at least they should have).

> Does this mean that if a publisher wanted to take the whole doc tree
> and publish it verbatim, and charge $49.95 a copy, he could?  

yep.

> Would he
> also have to include the source code, maybe as a CD-ROM insert?

nope ;)

> Finally, once Alice has published a revised version -- say, as a book
> in print -- then does the Apache project have the right to pull all
> her changes back in to the CVS tree, even if she doesn't want them to?

no right to do that. However "fair use" may allow someone to make corrections 
in Apache docs after reading Alices work. It depends on number of revisions 
and the level of new material added.

Cheers,

Pete

*-----------------------------------------------------*
| "Faced with the choice between changing one's mind, |
| and proving that there is no need to do so - almost |
| everyone gets busy on the proof."                   |
|              - John Kenneth Galbraith               |
*-----------------------------------------------------*

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