Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
Maybe I'm missing something. She took donations, posted all of the chapters as they were being written, as promised, the whole book was available long enough to be nominated for an award, which it won, and for some time thereafter. When she got a contract for a print book, the publisher requested that she take down the posted chapters. Is that right?
If so, that all seems perfectly reasonable to me.
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Well it's seems very unreasonable to me (of course I might be missing something in the history of this interaction for instance maybe there was a clause, that she will remove it any time she wishes and you send the money with no guarantees that you will be able to read it - who know now).
But.. Whether it's retail sale, download sale, shareware or donation-ware it's still a sale.
I don't know legal nuances of this in different countries and states, but that's what it is in mind and customs of many people and industries (like software).
You don't yank the program or a product after you received money. Granted you may not be obligated to provide it forever on your server, but then like RCA did long time ago, you post take down notice for everyone who paid, to download your content, program etc.
Now may be it's legal, may be it's not what she did, but it is certainly underhanded and unethical.