[seqfan] Re: A thought about the license: on "merciless editing"

[Klaus Brockhaus]

  Alonso,

if I got it right, the following text from the Edit page is not part of 
the license, just an important information addressed to those who are 
about to contribute:

Contributions are contributed under The OEIS Contributor's License 
Agreement 
<http://oeis.org/wiki/The_OEIS_Contributor%27s_License_Agreement>, and 
may be edited, altered, or
removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be 
edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.

So all considerations about "edited mercilessly" from a legal viewpoint 
or assumptions regarding what researchers would prefer seem completely 
off the point. I think the items you list as the researchers preferences 
go without saying.

Regards,
                     Klaus


Am 14.12.2010 21:26, schrieb Alonso Del Arte:
> First let me remind everyone that I'm not a lawyer. I don't quite like the
> words "edited mercilessly" in the license, as they suggest rudeness and
> caprice to my mind, but from a legal viewpoint they may be exactly the right
> thing. Or maybe a lawyer would recommend something more along the lines of
> "edited at will and without notice."
>
> But I think most researchers who use the OEIS would prefer something more
> like "edited for mathematical correctness and clarity, English spelling and
> grammar, and to conform with standard practices for scientific writing."
> Granted that there are a few subtopics in which the OEIS is in a unique
> position to set what the standard practice is (digit concatenation comes to
> mind), but for most core mathematical topics, the standard practices are
> pretty much set and there is little need to come up with new terminology and
> new notations.
>
> Though I figure a lawyer would object to my wording on the grounds that it
> would sign away the power to edit for reasons other than those I've listed
> here, both foreseen and unforeseen.
>