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.