[kwlug disc.] Linux Magazine

[Joe]

> My understanding of the GPL is that individual distros may well free 
> and clear, but that simply ripping the CD as whole might in some 
> small, but valid, way violate LM's copyright (let's say, for example, 
> that they wrote a README and put it in the root of the disk, in which 
> they discussed the pros-and-cons of the various distros).
>
> They would be within their rights (though, perhaps arguably not their 
> senses) to say "All Rights Reserved" with respect to that bit, and 
> bitwise copying the whole CD would then be blocked.
>
> If there is no value-add whatsoever, and it's just 11 directories with 
> 11 different GPL'd/FLOSS distros in vanilla form, then it is still 
> possible that a court might consider the bundling together of the 
> various materials to be sufficient to form a copyrightable 
> expression.  Certainly in the world of books, the simple act of 
> collection, flowing it through a layout program and hitting "Print" is 
> enough to constitute a fully projectable expression of a work.
>
> For an analogy, consider the phone book -- the content is explicitly 
> *not* covered by copyright.  However, the **expression** of that 
> content (the size and shape of the book, the layout, font, etc,) is.  
> The idea is that if you take non-copyright material, do a 
> butt-load-o-work, and come up with a novel expression, more useful 
> expression, etc, then you still get to protect it from willy-nilly 
> copying.  (Same thing with Westlaw -- the case texts are public 
> domain, but the compensation for a company to visit every court in the 
> country, get copies, digitize them all, index them, etc, is that they 
> get to claim copyright to their particular publications, and charge 
> for access.)
>
> In a University setting, imagine you are an English Prof, and you want 
> to use a snippit of Shakespeare in your official courseware.  Under 
> Cancopy, the courseware people have to go a find the exact book you 
> took that snippit from, and if that *particular* source is still under 
> copyright, then tada - royalties due in full to the publisher.  If you 
> were an experienced Prof or cared for the poor beaten pocketbooks of 
> your students, you would probably chose a dusty old copy from 1919, 
> and nope, no royalty dues required.
>
> What LM has done here is probably more on the "lifted a pinky finger" 
> end of the Effort-Expended-Scale (as opposed to the "butt-load-o-work" 
> end), but the safest thing to do would still be to copy the individual 
> FLOSS distros off the DVD individually, or even better, use it as a 
> conceptual idea for building the LUGs even better Disk of Distros, and 
> download fresh copies from the internet, and make copies available on 
> more idealistic terms (License Terms like: "Make Lots of Copies.  Go 
> wild.  Put your own LUG's name on it!  Run Linux!  Enjoy!")
>
>     -Cedric

Thanks for clarifying that Cedric. Don't get my wrong, I have no 
interest in stealing copyrighted/trademarked materials such as the linux 
pro magazine artwork or whatever else is accompanied on the DVD. My 
interest lies in what you have suggested - using the GPL/FLOSS content 
including grub or whatever boot method they use (assuming it's not 
proprietary)and modifying it. I hope to learn something from their file hierarchy and 
compare it to the methods described in various articles I've read for 
booting multiple distros and applications from a single disk.

Originally I just saw the Europe, UK, Australia and Africa contact 
information on their site. Since I have some experience in credit card 
processing and ebay sales I was reluctant to give my credit card details 
to a company overseas for a small $12.99 purchase. I'd rather pay cash 
or money order than risk running into issues with my card.  I took a 
second look at their site today however and they do have a Canadian and 
US distribution channel though with a toll free number (1-866-247-2802). 
For anyone interested in what I found out, the Canadian chains that 
carry this magazine are Chapters/Indigo: 
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/storelocator and Relay: 
http://www.relay.com/en/Default.asp?Menu=6  It was interesting that 
Coles Bookstore in Orangeville shows up as a Chapters/Indigo location so 
I've found a place where I can order/purchase the magazine locally. So 
for anyone who doesn't have a Chapters/Indigo location, you can check 
the store locator and find other retailers that carry their products.

I'd much rather support the magazine than just copy the gpl content off 
their DVD since I'm sure it will be useful to me. I noticed that they 
even have a link to kwlug on their site: 
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Readers/Usergroups Perhaps we can get the 
Cambridge LUG added to it.

~Joe