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Extra detailed response...
Authored by: robg on Dec 21, '02 08:19:13AM
It's a valid question, and one I gave a lot of thought to before the project started. Here are some things to consider about this project...
  • First and most important, no hint from this site is simply copied and pasted into the book. Every single hint was written from scratch (which is why it took me so long to write), using the hints on the site as the explanation for how the hint worked. As writing for the web and writing for print are very different, there was no point in trying to cut and paste. As such, nobody's original thoughts, except mine, are included in the book (exception noted below). Put another way, anyone would have had the rights to do what I just did, as there are no copyright issues on using what others have written (because I didn't!). Similarly, anyone who wanted to could create a book based on the content of the MacFixIt site or the MacRumors site or the MacSlash site -- as long as the author wrote all of the content themselves! But the editors of those sites will have an easier time of it if they choose to write the book themselves (as did Ted Landau on MacFixIt), as they probably have better access to the site's content database than do most normal viewers. The only thing you could not do in this scenario would be to use the name of the site in the name of your book without their permission - only I have the rights to publish a book called "The Greatest Hits of macosxhints.com" without seeking my permission :-). But you could certainly do what I did and call it "500 Amazing Jaguar hints" and I would have no recourse to sue. In fact, if you did it as described above, I doubt I'd even recognize that you used macosxhints.com tips as the source (since you would have re-written everything in the book).

  • Regarding copyright issues on taking others' concepts and turning them into a book, newbish has the general concept down. Most everything that appears on the site falls into a "general knowledge" area. How could one person copyright the fact that when you hit Shift Command Control 4, you capture an area of the screen to the clipboard? That hint was posted here, and there's certainly a copyright owned by whomever posted the article on their description of the process of using this feature, but there's no copyright on the general feature itself. So if "Susan" wrote "Hey OS X users - the killer key combo sh-cm-cn-4 takes regional captures to your clipper," and I put that in the book, then I probably have violated her copyright on her writing. But I didn't do that. Instead, I wrote an entirely different sentence, and added in three descriptive screenshots with captions, that described the same feature. So there's no copyright violation - Susan certainly doesn't own the rights to describing a feature common to every copy of OS X. If she did, then there could be no such thing as multiple books on OS X -- the first one out the door would shut out all the competition! If there's anyone who might own the copyright on the feature being described, it's the authors of the program containing the feature, not the author of the hint describing the feature. But I somehow believe that Apple, Adobe, etc. are quite interested in having more information available about how to use their products rather than less.

  • Of the 2,761 hints published here, I personally wrote 677 of them. So there's a fair number of hints in the book which were clearly mine to cut and paste if I wanted to (but I chose to rewrite those as well).

  • There are exceptions on the site to this "general knowledge" rule. There have been AppleScripts and Perl and shell scripts posted that are original creations of the submitting authors. In every one of those cases (and there were less than 10 that wound up in the book), I contacted the authors directly, explained what I wanted to do, and asked for their permission to do so. If anyone had said no, I would have left out the actual script, and just included a pointer back to the website (which I clearly have the right to do) for the details. However, every author I contacted wrote back with their approval, and most added something like "I assumed when I posted it there, since the entire world could copy and paste it whenever they wanted, that it was basically part of the public domain."

  • The bottom of every page on the site says copyright macosxhints.com, and then also includes a note that trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective owners. These statements are both still true, and I don't feel I violated either of them by creating the book in the style in which it was created. If hints were copied and pasted verbatim, then I would feel much differently. But this book is an original project based on the general concepts discussed on the website. Not even the titles of the hints were carried over, but even if they were, I write all the titles on the site anyway!
So that's about where the project stands from a legal standpoint. Could someone try to sue me? Potentially, although I think the grounds would be quite weak based on the method of the books creation -- anyone could have done this just as I did. I hope, of course, that nobody will, as I am clearly not going to get rich, retire, quit my day job, or even stop asking for subscriptions based on having the book available - it's just not that lucrative of an endeavour (first books in particular as the author is an unproven entity). Computer books don't sell millions of copies; Mac computer books in particular don't sell many copies at all when compared to the universe of computer books; the segment is just too small. As I said, I hope to make enough to keep the site advertising free in the future, but that's about the extent of my monetary thoughts.

Finally, someone asked the question regarding "If you use my hint, do I get a free book?" The answer is "it depends." If your hint contained an original script that I wanted to use, then yes, you will receive a copy of the book when it hits the streets (and you would have already known this, as we would have had an email exchange about it). But if you were the one who submitted the "shift command control 4" hint, then, no, I'm afraid you won't be receiving a book. As much as I'd love to give a book to everyone whose general concept wound up in the book, the economics of the situation clearly make that impossible. I get a relatively limited number of "author's copies" for free, and anything beyond that I have to buy at a fairly healthy cost (not full retail, but not cheap, either). With 500 hints in the book, purchase and distribution of free books to anyone whose general concept hint wound up being covered would break the bank for me -- I'd end up losing my shirt on the book project! And while I didn't decide to write the book to get rich, I hope not go broke because I chose to write it.

I hope this long-winded reply addresses most of the concerns, and I understand the need to question the project. But the single most important thing to remember is that less than one percent of the site content is copied and pasted into the book (and explicit permission was granted for those items); everything else was written from scratch using only the topic as the guide for the book version of the hint. The book is an original creation guided by the concepts covered on the site.

-rob.

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Extra detailed response...
Authored by: deleted_user18 on Dec 22, '02 06:41:25AM

Congratulations! Propably this and "OS X Unleashed" are the two books I will recommend to every Linux-switcher who buys a Mac!

But honestly I would handle the submitting of a hint different in the future. It should be clear for everybody who submits a hint that his hint might end up in a "OS X Hints, Vol.2" book.




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Future...
Authored by: robg on Dec 22, '02 10:15:19AM

I'll probably change the site footer to match the forum site, which reads: "Site design © 2002 macosxhints.com; individuals retain copyright of their postings
but consent to the possible use of their material in other macosxhints' content," or something along those lines.

-rob.



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Extra detailed response...
Authored by: nixGuy on Dec 24, '02 04:15:04AM

Congrats Rob. I for one am working on a small booklet for the sys admins who use mac as the server or in a network environment.
I am not the guy who invented any of the tips that I am workin on except that I discovered some in the process. I for one understand that the process was always there and what I did was use it in my own way. I am documenting them for others to read and use. So what I am asking for is not the rights to the process but the effort I put in giving it to the masses. I your case it might be different. But what I understand that you are doing is absolutely right.
The question of copyright does not arise as you an editor and have every right to use content from your published material.
If I post to a site, it is implied that in future I can be quoted. No one needs my permission. But if I have defined a process and that process has to be quoted all I would need is a mention. Nothing more, nothing less.
I will be one who would like to buy your book. I say "Like" cause I am far away in India and the local book seller for O'Reilly does not carry the Mac books. I have to place order 60 days in advance and pay twice the dollar money in local currency. Well so be it.
Please let the world ejoy the fruits of your labor. Great work Rob.

Another thing lastly: I appreciate the site a lot. I may not be able to contribute. I think that you earn the right to publish the book as you do a gret service to the Mac community at large.



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