Re: What would an "An Official" GNU Emacs Book look like?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2015-05-10, at 17:27, Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>   > > Learning GNU Emacs and Writing GNU Emacs Extensions are not ours;
>   > > I would guess that they are nonfree, but I don't know.  Can you check
>   > > what licenses their sources carry?  If they are free, we could recommend
>   > > them (but not via amazon.com).
>
>   > How about recommending a dead-tree version?
>
> Whether printed or digital, whether gratis or paid,
> we should recommend only manuals that are free.

Interesting.  I know your opinion on free software, but books seem to be
a bit different.  For instance, you can't really have DRM on a book (a
printed one, I mean).  Also, while it is illegal to copy proprietary
software to a friend/relative, it is perfectly legal to lend them a book
(and I guess also photocopy, though I'm not sure about this).  All this
means that books are "more free" than software by default.

Of course, it is your and FSF's right to choose what to promote.  OTOH,
I personally would love to read more Emacs books, and I don't mind
buying them from a traditional publisher (or in an ebook form, even from
the Evil Ama..., sorry, Empire;-)).

Best regards,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University