On Sat, Mar 24, 2007 at 11:05:19PM +0900, Dave Thomas wrote:
> 
> On Mar 23, 2007, at 6:55 PM, Tim X wrote:
> 
> >To try and get things back on topic for the group - one of the  
> >things that made
> >me try out ruby was the availability of accessible material, such  
> >as the
> >pragmatic programmers ruby book etc. I'd be quite willing to pay  
> >for electronic
> >books like this one as long as I can then use it how I want -  
> >often, this means
> >converting it into text or html so that I can access it from my  
> >preferred
> >platform, Linux. The other good thing about getting into ruby is  
> >that there is
> >a wealth of material out there from users, such as blogs, guides  
> >and tutorials
> >that members of the ruby community have made available to anyone  
> >who wants
> >them.
> 
> FWIW, our PDFs do not have DRM enabled. All they have is your name  
> stamped onto the bottom of each page.

Excellent!  I haven't yet ordered a PragProg PDF (despite owning several
hardcopy PragProg books), but as long as this policy of avoiding DRM
remains effective I'll most likely end up buying a few in time.

For what it's worth, I think the loyalty, respect, and good will of the
Ruby community in particular and even programmers in general will ensure
that you'll continue to profit from your generosity and quality work for
some time to come, without need of any attempts to use technical
enforcement of copyright.  I, for one, am more inclined to pay money for
these books the more generous and trusting you are.

I'm just a drop in the bucket, though.  I make no claims at this time
about the attitudes of others toward your largesse.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"A script is what you give the actors.  A program
is what you give the audience." - Larry Wall