(urth) Lexicon Urthus

Fri Jul 22 13:42:15 PDT 2005

I agree. If it's available POD (even spiralbound), and is being
revised, then I say leave it at that. There is no need to ask for
a GNU-type license.

On 7/22/05, pthwndxrclzp <aquastor at gmail.com> wrote:
> Wait, now I'm confused. I thought the previous email noted that one
> can get a spiral-bound copy for about twenty-five bucks plus shipping.
> Isn't that sufficient for most any need for the present? I'd hate
> Mantis to feel like we were pushing him, given that the text is
> apparently readily available (assuming you don't inherently loathe
> spiral-bindings)....
> 
> On 7/22/05, Maru Dubshinki <marudubshinki at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Alright, I'm done. Here's the rough draft; critique as you will:
> >
> > Dear Mr. Andre-Driussi:
> >
> > On behalf on the Urth.net mailing list [0], I would like to ask you to
> > re-license ''Lexicon Urthus'' with a free-er license; by 'free' I mean
> > free as in speech [1], or the 'free software' sense [2].
> >
> > I ask because your work is very well-known on the list, as are you,
> > but it is nigh impossible to acquire.  People like myself, who were
> > not around during the original printing of "Lexicon Urthus", now find
> > it impossible to acquire a copy.  No physical book stores possess any
> > of the run of 1000 books; Sirius Fiction says it is completely out,
> > with no plans for a corrected second printing, or a second edition
> > [3].  Abebooks, Amazon, Ebay etc. all demand a absolute minimum of 100
> > US$ for a copy, which may not even be in mint condition!  Simply put,
> > $ 100 is not doable for the vast majority of Wolfean readers, and a
> > year is a long time.
> >
> > Releasing your work under a permissive license would cost you very
> > little; commercial prospects for "Lexicon Urthus" appear minimal, due
> > to the fact that by its very nature it appeals to a limited and select
> > group, so potential profit is very slim (though there is some demand
> > [5]).  Furthermore, if you feel there are opportunities for future
> > editions, you could simply release it under a Creative Commons [6]
> > license reserving commercial use of "Lexicon Urthus" exclusively to
> > yourself, but freely allowing non-profit usage of it [7], or perhaps
> > under another similar license [8]; or possibly even into the public
> > domain [9] (which, however, from our perspective would be ideal.
> > Public domain is the freest licensing scheme, and the simplest to
> > understand and work with). Or you could choose the GNU Free
> > Documentation License [10].
> >
> > There are strong reasons to believe that a freely available online
> > edition will not cannibalize sales of "Lexicon Urthus"- Firstly, the
> > person who will read more than a smidgen of an online edition is very
> > probably a fan of Gene Wolfe's work, and so would buy an edition for
> > convenience, as reading online fatigues the eyes and is not always
> > possible, if they don't buy just to support critical Wolfe literature
> > or for their collection; Secondly, more likely, viewers will be
> > looking up a few entries. Seeing the quality of the entries, they may
> > well be more motivated to buy, since "Lexicon Urthus" would then not
> > be a book of unknown quality with a deterring price (Cory Doctorow
> > [11] notes on the Wikipedia article on him (a project known for its
> > sucess and its use of a free license [12]) that his books have sold
> > very well, thanks to his licensing practices [13]). Thirdly, all the
> > licenses suggested would allow you to incorporate our work into any
> > future editions for free.
> >
> > Whichever you choose, be it one of those I suggested or a license of
> > your own devising, you need only reply with a refusal, or with a
> > simple statement saying "I hereby release my "Lexicon Urthus" under
> > the X license." And that's it- one of your fans has already
> > volunteered [14] to scan and format it; then the rest of us can set to
> > work improving it, fixing the small errors others have caught [15],
> > etc.
> >
> > What motivation do I have to ask?  Simply that "Lexicon Urthus" could
> > be an excellent basis for the long-discussed Urth.net FAQ, since it
> > disposes of just about every vocabulary related question, is a primary
> > source document for many of the most popular theories, and is
> > comprehensive.
> >
> > Thank you for your time. I hope you will consider my suggestions seriously.
> >
> > ~Maru Dubshinki
> >
> >
> > [0] http://www.urth.net/
> > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
> > [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
> > [3] http://www.siriusfiction.com/#lexicon
> > [4] http://lists.urth.net/htdig.cgi/urth-urth.net/2004-December/000159.html
> > [5] http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2005-July/001275.html
> > [6] http://creativecommons.org/
> > or
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
> > [7] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
> > [8] http://creativecommons.org/license/
> > [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
> > [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License
> > or
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License
> > [11] http://www.craphound.com/
> > or
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow
> > [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Cory_Doctorow
> > [13] http://craphound.com/someone/000362.html
> > [14] http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2005-July/001269.html
> > [15] http://www.siriusfiction.com/errata.html
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