I subscribe to the philosophy that intellectual work posted on the web should be free for all, unless it is a specific retail item...like an eBook. After all, the Internet was built by the American tax payer as federal grants were provided to our institutions of higher education by the DOD. Accordingly, anything that is not password protected on the Web should be free and passed around freely amongst the participants...like a big fat doob...and you don't want to Bogart. The many workbooks, tutorials, and other information based items are provided to you at no cost here...get smart, be smart, act smart. My philosophy is the same as the philosophy behind the free-ware movement. The basis of most of what I do is concerned with learning/teaching and self-realization, all of which are essential for the existence of any democratic state. If you run across copyrighted material belonging to others on this site, then please respect that copyright. In many instances I have received information to use certain works for educational purposes.
The fact that I believe that education and self-realization are attributes that every society should provide to all of it's citizens at no cost to the citizen, does not mean that I feel that everything in the world should be free. This type of thinking goes beyond naive, it is f****** stupid. The creation and maintenance of this site does come with costs, but what the hell...that is my choice? Since this site is a labor of love, then I have no expectations of being compensated for the time it took to create it. Furthermore, not being a whore for profit I do not solicit donations. Maybe 'whore for profit' is too harsh of a term since I have never made a profit on this site. Hell, I have never been sent so much as one cent. Besides, I have enough in the bank to keep this site running until I drop my body (I am 87.) For those not in the know, there are many costs attributed to maintaining a Web site, and below is a brief list of what I pay for out of my own pocket.
Web site costs incurred:
- Registration of domain name
- Yearly costs for Internet host
- A scanner to scan the numerous workbooks, and papers that I only have hard-copies of
- Dreamweaver and Fireworks...big ticket items CS has been very expensive over the years, but well worth it
- Continually upgrading my hardware
- Internet cable connection
- A digital camera for photographing images used in a few of the tutorials
- And the list goes on...
So, if you want to give me money may I suggest that instead you drop some change on NPR, PBS, or Wikipedia, The Nature Conservancy, or Zero Population Growth. I will not accept any money to support my "hobby."
If I have pulled down one of your tutorials and, despite giving you credit and linking back to your site, and in many cases even attempted to contact you, you may ask me to kick back some money to you--this has happened a few times. If this is you, then will you please send me the URL and I will pull the page before politely telling you to "piss off." There are some sites where I have used several tutorials and I always contact the author and ask for permission and/or given them a small donation. In fact, most sites that do not subscribe to the Creative Commons I try to contact the authors, but sometimes it is impossible and then they come around 6 years later crying/whining 'Foul..copyright violation.' This type of parasite is rare, but it has happened. The fact is most Web authors are flattered to see their work posted and gladly allow me to use their work. As expected, there are always some who just do not comprehend the complex concept of 'cooperative consciousness,' and feel that what they have done should be paid for even though in reality their work may suck beyond comprehension or may actually be outdated material (yes, this has also happened and gave us a good laugh.) You may be asking "why don't you remove the outdated material?" Two reasons: 1) It is too much work, and 2) my site consists of over 1600 pages and it is almost impossible for me to go through all of the pages and delete the outdated ones especially when I am hell-bent on adding and creating more new DIY pages. Basically, it is too much work. Someday though, I will clean things up unless it ends-up being too much work.
I have posted many original writings/manuscripts that I have copyrights on, and this may seem like a contradiction. The copyright is there to protect the content of the work. Some of my papers (the problem solving and neurology stuff) are used by universities and other educational institutions, and all I ask for is that the integrity of the work be preserved and if possible a link back to my site be provided...if you can't link back to me, then no biggie. There have also been a couple of instances where some scum bag decided to pull down some of my manuscripts and then sell them without contacting me. Contact me, and we can work something out..maybe...well, if I like you we can. But if you really want to piss me off, then steal from me and try to make a profit off of my labors. If you are using the profits to buy some books for some poor kids is one thing (these people always contact me and I say "go for it", but to make money off of my work to feed your narcissistic-infantile-ego-suck is quite another (this is unfortunately often the case.) The tutorials that I write myself are free for you to do what you want with. Tutorials that are the work of others I always give credit to the authors and link back to his/her site when possible, and as a professional courtesy you may want to contact the author before doing anything drastic with the work. If there is a name but no link, then it was done by one of my students and treat it as if I wrote it. Regardless, let's have some fun here and use the Internet to educate and spread democratic ideals.
