I am cautiously in favour of having the FML available in an indexable form.
I would like to make the following comments and conditions:
[Please excuse the long digression. I won't feel offended if you
skip this, but current and potential FML access providers should
read this.]
1) The FML is rather larger than will fit on a single floppy ;-)
In highly compact/non-searchable/compressed form it's over
3Mb. Count on at least 8Mb for a form that's indexable and
viewable.
2) The whole world is not a PC. Nor a Mac. Count me in as
a bigot for real computers ;-) If the FML itself is made
available on some sort of media along with a searching
program, one or both of the following must be true:
1) the searching program should be provided in a form that
is easily ported to other computers if the user wishes.
Ie: provide a copy of the source for the searching program
on the floppy. The source should be in a relatively easily
portable language. Such as C. And be useable with minimal
demands on hardware (eg: configurable to a dumb terminal)
2) The supplied copy of the FML shall be provided in a reasonably
easy to parse database format, and that documentation for this
format should be provided with the FML.
The intent is that a "provide the thing on a floppy"
approach is useable by everybody with a computer, regardless
of what platform they have. For example, there are indexes
to magazines that I'd love to use, but since their formats
are proprietary, and I'm not running DOS or Mac, there ain't
no way that I can use them.
For example, the indexing software may be a DOS program, but it
must be reasonably easy to port the DOS program to other platforms
and/or roll your own database lookup programs.
Please consult with me privately on what meets these criteria.
3) The FML is not for sale. I know that this was mentioned in jest,
but I think it appropriate to publically state the FML policy -
partially because it also applies to existing non-internet FML
access.
What this means is that you cannot charge for access to the
FML, or in this specific context, charge for a copy of the FML
database.
In the case of a Compuserve-like or GEnie-like service, it
is okay to charge ordinary access charges, such as connect-time.
It is forbidden, however, to charge an additional fee for access
to the FML.
In the case of a FML-on-floppy-like system, you cannot charge
for the FML itself. You may charge a reasonable media, copying
and handling fee for a "product" that minimally conforms to (2)
above. I consider $30 or $40 reasonable. As long as this meets
(2), you can charge whatever you want for an optional second
"product". By this I mean, for example, that you could charge
$30 for a set of floppies containing the FML and the format
documentation, then have an optional $1000 second product with an
all-singing-all-dancing super-spiffy full VR PC-only user interface.
4) The FML may not be editted for content under any circumstances, except
as specifically permitted by me. It may have its format changed as
required by the database mechanisms that you may wish to encorporate,
but the content must remain unaltered. This may be problematical
for a "best of FML" thingummy, so anyone wishing to do something
like this should contact me privately with the proposal.
I should comment a little further on this: I believe that
the originator of a FML article is the real copyright holder.
I am asserting "copyright on the collection" rights merely to
act as a representative of the FML subscribership as a whole and
protect their rights. What this means, for example, is that if you
obtain the permission of the original author of a FML message,
you can do anything you want and they agree to regardless of what
*I* think. And secondly, I should point out that some of the
FML contributors (Dr. Williams in particular) explicitly renounce
control of their "works", so my permission isn't required either.
[Posted in FML issue 0795]
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