L I N U X F O C U S     M A N I F E S T O 
      --------------------------------------------
      LinuxFocus(R) 1998, is a registered trademark 

This file contains a first draft for a constitution of LinuxFocus
Magazine as a non-for-profit organization. It describes in as much
detail as possible our organization, goals, projects, sites and
license terms covering our articles and material.


Introduction
============
LinuxFocus came to existance late 1997 when a small group of Linux
fans in non-english speaking countries realized that the amount of
support and documentation for the Linux operating system was close
to none in their respective languages. 

Although most of us were able to read English news groups, HOWTOS and
books, we felt that providing information of this nature in a
non-english language was very important. Most young people in
non-english speaking countries rarely speak or read English, their
first experience with a computer operating system likely comes from
the hand of Microsoft windoze. MS sells their distribution in almost
all languages imaginable. Commercial linux distributors are not even
near that level.

Our fundamental goal is then pedagogical. To reach a new generation of
users and to provide enough information in their native language so
that they can join in the linux community.

LinuxFocus has a second goal of more importance for veteran users. At
LinuxFocus we would like to use the power of online communication to
carry on series of articles on subjects of general interest,
hierarchical organization of free source code and documentation,
online interactive tutorials, online conferences, etc...


Who is involved and how to be a member
=======================================
LF is made of a growing number of regular contributors and volunteers
plus hundreds of sporadic helpers. At the moment our organization is
very fluid and still under constant changes. LF people come from all
sources and educational backgrounds. We have students, scientists,
engineers, college faculty, etc... Many are part of other Linux
projects.

New people are always welcome. The best way to become part of
LinuxFocus is contacting the project coordinator for your language of
interest. To find out who is the appropriate editor-in-chief visit our
webpage

       http://www.linuxfocus.org/index.html

Or send an email to LinuxFocus project leader Miguel A Sepulveda at
sepulveda@linuxfocus.org


Is LinuxFocus a commercial company?
=================================
We are not a commercial company. Most of us are too busy pursuing
other profesional careers so we cannot work full time on LinuxFocus.
Our organization is slowly and naturally evolving into a
non-for-profit organization.

LinuxFocus is brought to you as a result of the effort of a number of
people and the generous effort of ISPs and Linux vendors that give us
free server and internet access.

One of our goals is to raise enough funds to purchase our own servers
and ISP access. We also would like to have funds to contract series of
articles that might be too long or complex for any single volunteer to
take on in a reasonable time. Another of our needs is to provide some
compensation for network and information systems personal to take care
of our server infrastructure.


Copyright policy 
================ 
LinuxFocus articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.  The
articles, news and documentation on our websites is available online
for free. We also allow the reproduction of verbatim copies of LF
material for scholastic and/or personal use, however the integrity of
the original text, formatting and advertisement space must be
preserved. Any changes to LinuxFocus material requires the prior
approval of its authors and or the magazine. Commercial use of
LinuxFocus articles is not allowed without prior written permission
from its authors.

In order to allow the distribution of LinuxFocus magazine we need to
request authors a few elemental conditions for publishing their
work. These conditions are aimed at helping us legally translate
their articles and distribute them through our web and FTP sites.

Authors that submit articles to LinuxFocus should be reminded by
editors to read this manifesto. Every author to LF should receive a
copy of this manifesto and be given a chance to review it. If within a
reasonable time period LinuxFocus does not receive a response we will
assume that the author of the submitted article agrees to the
following terms.

LinuxFocus Social Contract
===========================

1) Authors submitting articles to LF are giving us implicit permission
to publish and translate their articles. It is the only way for us to
publish work copyrighted by the authors. Authors should understand
that our publication may take place in our official websites, FTP
sites and respective mirrors. All these sites are of free access to users
with internet connection. LinuxFocus may also distribute the articles
as part of future monographic issues in CD, paper or whatever form
is necessary. 

2) LinuxFocus has its own set of formatting standards so we almost
certainly reformat submitted works to fit our style. Additional
illustrations and references maybe added to articles if we judge that
it will improve the aestetics and bibliographical content. Authors are
always welcome to give us any special suggestions as to the motif of
illustrations or formatting requirements. We will do the outmost to
adjust LF style to authors wishes.

3) Everyone at LinuxFocus is a volunteer working on an idealistic
cause to improve the level of documentation on Linux in a number of
languages.  We cannot assure the quality of translations, and
therefore be responsible for errors. However, if errors are detected
we will appreciate being notified and we will do our best effort to
correct it.

4) Published articles should not be considered final expression of
speach but on-going pieces of work. Authors are free to review their
published articles over time, make modifications, additions, etc. This
policy hopes to improve or update the content of articles. Updated
articles should be resubmitted and follow the standard process.

5) Articles may be submitted to any of the editors of the
magazine, or directly via email to sepulveda@linuxfocus.org

6) Articles submitted to LinuxFocus may be peer-reviewed in order
to improve LinuxFocus overall quality. 

7) Anyone can download, print, or distribute copies of LinxuFocus
articles for personal or scholastic usage. LinuxFocus articles are not
made available on our website for commercial usage. Anyone interested
on distributing LF articles for commercial purposes should contact
their respective authors to obtain explicit written
permission.

8) Translated works are not solely the property of authors but also of
LinuxFocus. Therefore no commercial use can be made of translated
work without LF approval.

9) Distribution of LF magazine on CD by non-for-profit organizations or
groups is allowed as long as the contents of the magazine are
distributed in full and without alterations. Distributors may charge
a "reasonable" fee to cover the expenses of production. Distributing
LinuxFocus magazine implies to include the full hierarchy of files
under http://www.linuxfocus.org. 



Disclaimer
==========
THE CONTENTS OF THIS MAGAZINE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES 
OF ANY KIND WETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. 

LINUXFOCUS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLES AND
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THE AUTHORS ONLY AND DOES NOT REPRESENT
NEITHER LINUXFOCUS NOR OUR SPONSORS.