22 Jun
2005
22 Jun
'05
10:34 a.m.
From: "Joe Barrera" <joe at barrera.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 12:15 AM
SUPRDAVE at aol.com wrote:
Manuals that I have scanned are being sold on CD's. At first it bothered me
but after that I want my PDF's distributed and this is just another way.
Randy
www.s100-manuals.com
I had that happen to me. I was just looking at
stuff, and noticed
some familiar sounding text related to a computer for sale, a PS/2 I
think. I asked the seller a question and told him I knew what he did
and that I demand the text either removed or attributed to me. He
complied and said he would not do it anymore. Never had any other
issue beyond that.
I think these sellers find stuff on the web (yours), and view it as
authoritative text that somehow created itself, and never think
about the personal effort involved in researching and writing it.
If you've ever tried to teach students the importance of
attribution, you'll know how difficult it is to get people to
understand that their sources are not pure knowledge crystallized
from the heavens, but rather someone's concrete effort.
I know I'm not phrasing this well, but I'm trying to say it's
ignorance, not malice, that leads to not acknowledging sources.
And that's probably why education, in the form of telling each
infringer why they need to credit their sources, works more
than you'd think. Most people get it, once it's been explained
to them.
- Joe