[svlug] Advertising in our HOWTOs

[Rick Moen]

begin  Seth David Schoen quotation:

> Should we try to get a statement from the LDP folks?  They may not even
> know that this an issue, especially if they're not directly editing each
> new HOWTO edition.

Some data that may bear on this:

o  LDP is said to be a collaboration of numerous volunteers.  I see
   no information on its structure.

o  Joshua Drake is one of two current webmasters for www.linuxdoc.org .
   He's the fellow who included the advertisement/hyperlink to 
   acknowledge a grant (?) from OpenDocs Publishing, LLC.  (Perhaps
   OpenDocs's "funding" for open-source software documentation via
   its OpenSource Documentation Fund initiative is conditioned on 
   inclusion of embedded advertisements?)

o  Drake is also the DNS Technical Contact, Administrative Contact,
   _and_ Billing Contact for the linuxdoc.org domain.  He is also
   the _registrant_ of the domain (or rather his consulting firm is --
   see below).  In a functional sense, he owns the LDP.

o  Drake appears to have been the leading proponent of the LDP's
   still-stalled conversion from LinuxDoc to the much-more-complex 
   DocBook DTD, which you may recall is opposed by LDP founder Matt
   Welsh.

o  OpenDocs Publishing, LLC is a commercial print publisher with three 
   current titles (Linux-oriented technical books) plus one in the offing.
   See the LDP's "News" item for May 26, 2000.

o  OpenDocs is partially owned by Command Prompt, Inc. of Oregon
   (www.commandprompt.com), Drake's consulting company.  See:
   http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Consultants-HOWTO/x38544.html

All of us have business interests:  Mr. Drake seems to have a difficult
time forebearing from using the Linux community's central documentation
repositories to flog them.  And he appears to be situated such that he
can do so with impunity.

-- 
Cheers,     "Because film is the pre-eminent American art form.  You don't hear
Rick Moen   people saying 'You know, this movie would make a really great epic
rick at linuxmafia.com     poem.'"   -- Orson Scott Card, book signing, 7 Jan 2001

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