dive into mark

I recently received an email from a reader of my book, asking about the licensing terms of the book. Here’s an excerpt.

I am curious about the gnu documentation license. Does this mean a book publisher could pick up your book, make some fancy cover, maybe edit it a bit and then publish it (without you received a cent for your hard work)?

Yes.

I (think I) understand the incentives for open *source*, but I’m not sure that I understand the incentives behind open *documenation*. Can you give me a clue?

I began writing the book out of pure altruism. I learned Python through a frustrating combination of too-simple tutorials and too-complex code, and the book I’m writing is the book I wish I had learned Python from instead. Even if a publisher prints it and keep the profits, the work itself is still mine (copyright protects that) and still free (the Free Documentation License protects that). I am willing to trade potential loss of income for the benefits that come from giving out my work for free. For instance, the book has already been translated into 3 different languages; two of the translators didn’t even contact me before they started, they just did it. Someone wrote the scripts to add the book to the FreeBSD ports distribution, so it will be in the next release of FreeBSD. ActiveState now includes the WinHelp edition of the book with their Python distribution for Windows; after installing, one of the items on your start menu is “Dive Into Python”.

So what do I get out of it? Reputation. Beyond the altruistic intentions, the selfish motivation behind open source and open documentation is usually reputation. The diveintopython.org site averages 4,000 downloads a month, and a new translation every 2 months. (Which means that, by the time I’m 30, I will have written a book read by 100,000 people around the world in a dozen different languages. It’s not the Great Americal Novel, but it’s close.) Having a publisher publish the book in printed form would only enhance my reputation.

Reputation can also lead to money. I’m a programmer during the day. I recently searched for a new job and spoke with a content management company. They asked me if I had any experience in XML and XSL. I laughed, then pointed them to diveintopython.org. They made me an offer shortly thereafter, which I turned down after my current employer made me a counteroffer. The book was one of the factors in their wanting me to stay; they love telling clients they have a “world famous author” on staff. In the middle of a horrible tech recession, I have a job that I enjoy and an employer who goes out of their way to meet my needs. How much money is that worth?

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