The Computer Technology Documentation Project Policies

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Policy Information

These policies are written and posted so members of the CTDP and the public can fully understand the conditions under which this organization is intended to operate. We have tried to account for most possibilities. These policies may be modified by the CTDP management at any time in order to cover unforeseen circumstances. The general policies with regard to document ownership shall not change. These policies are written to ensure the smooth operation of the CTDP and for the protection of its members.

Ownership of submitted material

Ownership of the following types of items shall be as follows:

  1. Articles, editorials, graphics images along with other minor items normally posted freely on the CTDP website shall be considered to be copyright of the creator or author. However, unless designated otherwise at the time of submission to the CTDP, these items shall be considered part of the "public domain" and shall not be required to be withdrawn from the CTDP for any reason.
  2. Manuals, guides, books, and computer programs submitted to the CTDP which are of a larger and more complex nature shall be considered copyright of the creator and not a part of the public domain unless specified otherwise by the author. This does not mean that if the author chooses not to charge the public for this item, that it is part of the public domain. The author must inform the CTDP at the time of submission whether the item is to be part of the public domain. If no specification is made, it is assumed to be part of the public domain.

The definition of "public domain" means open for free use by the general public. However certain copyright laws may still apply in some instances. I am not a lawyer, so I cannot specify exact details.

Organizational Operation

The scope, direction, policies, and goals of this organization shall be determined by its management. All suggestions are welcome but we cannot guarantee that we can follow every suggestion. We will be as responsive as possible, but the scope, objectives, and direction of this organization must be maintained in order to avoid confusion.

How to become a Contributing Member

  1. Make a contribution using the procedure outlined on the membership page or show qualifications as outlined below.
  2. Your membership will be reviewed in accordance with the following polices:
    1. The decision to give you the status of a contributing member may be made by one or more of the following:
      1. The founder of The Computer Technology Documentation Project.
      2. A group of those you worked with on the project.
      3. A group of contributing members or a combination of contributing members and associate members.
    2. The procedure is as follows:
      1. If you worked as part of a group on a project, your co-workers will be consulted by either the contributing members and/or the CTDP founder.
      2. The contributing member(s) involved in the decision and/or the project founder will recommend for or against promotion to contributing member .
      3. If approved, you will have full status as a contributing member.

How to qualify as a contributing member

If you have shown special willingness to contribute in technical areas by doing one of the following, you may qualify as a contributing member.

  1. You are a contributing member of the open source community. You have written significant programs and/or documentation for the open source community.
  2. You have worked as part of a team without compensation writing open source code or documentation and it can be verified.
  3. You have developed freeware code.
  4. You have independently developed and/or posted free documentation in one or more technical subject areas.
  5. You have worked as part of a team without compensation developing freeware code and/or documentation and it can be verified.

In some instances of having been compensated for efforts, you may still qualify for contributing membership.

If you fit into one of the above categories and want to become a contributing member, do the following:

  1. Apply to become a member of the CTDP mail group. See the membership or join page.
  2. Contact us using our contact page stating what project/code/documentation you worked on or developed.
  3. If your work is considered significant enough, you are the sole author and are willing to allow either a link to your website and/or your work to be posted on our site, you will be granted immediate contributing member status. In this case if your documentation or code is free, and you were compensated for your work, you will qualify.
  4. If you are not the sole author and can show significant contribution to your group, upon verification, you will be granted contributing member status. In this case if you were compensated for your work, unless there are special circumstances, you may not qualify.

What if I've made a contribution, and I'm not a full member but feel I should be?

These are the steps you should take:

  1. Contact us using our contact page stating your case.
  2. You will within a reasonable time period (probably within a week or two) receive a response from us with some explanation. You will be informed by approximate percentage, how much additional effort would be required to qualify relative to the effort already made.
  3. If you are still not satisfied you may do one or more of the following:
    1. Withdraw the document or program you have submitted for use by the CTDP as long as it is done within 30 days from the original time of submission. If the item is not part of the public domain, you may withdraw it at any time. You are the author and hold the copyright. How you use your document is up to you. If in the case where you have co-authored a document, you will not be able to withdraw the document because of your co-author(s). In this case your membership may be based in input from the co-author(s) you worked with. You will need to show tolerance and bear it unless your co-author also wants the document withdrawn.
    2. Withdraw from CTDP membership.
    3. This is what you may not do.
      1. You may not sue this organization nor any member of this organization whether the member is an associate or contributing member.
      2. You may not post obnoxious e-mails nor disruptive e-mails of any nature on the groups discussion board. If you have any complaints you may contact us using our contact page . If this policy is violated, the offender will be immediately removed from the group.

Withdrawal of a Contributing Member

A contributing may withdraw from the CTDP for two reasons:

  1. They choose to withdraw with or without reason.
  2. They act inappropriately and become disruptive to the rest of the group and the project by violating the terms of membership as listed on the membership page.

Submissions written by the formal member will be treated in the following manner depending on the type of item.

  1. Submissions that are part of the "public domain" will remain a part of the CTDP at the discretion of management.
  2. Small submissions such as editorials, articles, and graphics images that are considered to be personal property will be removed from the CTDP web site within six months of the member's withdrawal if requested.
  3. Major submissions such as documents and guides that are considered to be personal property will be removed from the CTDP web site within three months of the member's withdrawal if requested.
  4. Submissions that were part of a group effort will be removed only if all members who worked on the document request its withdrawal. If such document is being offered for sale, any appropriate payments shall still be made to former members.

Death of a contributing member

Upon the death of a contributing member, items submitted by that member will be considered part of the public domain. This means that any heirs cannot request royalties for the material, nor can they force the material to be removed from the CTDP web page. This condition is set to avoid the confusion of dealing with various heirs. If the member was the sole author of the material and the material is being sold, the material will be posted free for public use. If the member was a co-author of a document, the price of the document will be reduced by an appropriate percent.

How is money distributed to authors based on purchases?

Many purchases are done as a package where the customers may purchase more than one document. However each document has an individual price. If you take the normal pricing of all the packages in the bundle and add them up and divide the normal price of the item in question into that value, you will get a fraction that describes the overall fractional value of that package in the package. Multiply that fraction by the amount paid for the bundle and you get the amount of sales credited to that document.

Package sale credit = (Total bundle price) X (Document regular price) / (Sum of all regular document prices in the bundle)

Of that amount 35% will be contributed to charitable organizations of the CTDP founder's choosing. Members are allowed to suggest organizations, but the final decision is the CTDP founder's. Of the remaining amount of the sale left, the author will be entitled to a minimum of 50%. More may be distributed to the author, at the discretion of CTDP management. This is due to financial concerns of CTDP which is discussed in another paragraph.

When will money be distributed to charities?

The timeliness of money distribution will depend on the amount of money involved. More sales means money will be distributed quicker. We will as a general rule try to distribute amounts owed to authors or organizations based on the following:

  1. Amounts under $100 - Distributed at the end of the calendar year.
  2. Amounts from $100-$300 - Distributed within 90 days, or at the end of every quarter.
  3. Amounts over $300 - distributed monthly.

This is a general rule and we will do our best to meet this schedule. We will try to settle accounts for every fiscal year for tax purposes. Every individual is responsible for any personal taxes on money received from this organization. This organization will not make money, but may pay members for services.

Why does the CTDP founding member retain full authority for determining charitable organizations to contributing to?

Because the founder of this organization worked very hard for over three years, with very little help, to found this organization. This is one way to repay that effort.

CTDP Financial Concerns

The financial concerns of the CTDP will largely be dependent on:

  1. The amount of interest generated by this project.
  2. How we do business, based on sales and member contributions.
  3. How many purchases are required to support the project such as compression software used as an aid in distributing the various documentation.
  4. How many refunds for purchases are issued to members or the general public who become contributing members. After the three year expiration period on purchases, they are, however, no longer refundable.
  5. Whether it becomes necessary to hire anyone on a temporary, part time, or permanent basis to do any of the following (this depends on sales and growth of the project and how orders are met).
    1. Office help to fill and track orders.
    2. Accounting services to track sales and distribute payments.
    3. Legal services due to copyright issues and more.

Plan for purchases

In the long term, we hope to allow purchases to be done by credit card and the customer will immediately allow customer access to download the purchased files. However charges for this type of service start at $50 per month for the credit card service alone. We don't yet know if it is worth paying this monthly fee for this organization since we don't know how much interest will be generated. If this plan is used, we could set up our own server to receive and distribute orders, with the credit card services provided through an external server. Our server could then track sales and automatically calculate amounts for various distributions to authors and charitable organizations.

Conclusion

If you as a member are not satisfied with the policies of this organization or have suggestions for the policies of this organization, please let us know by contacting us using our contact page . We are open to suggestions of all members and the public and we will try to be as fair as possible to both our members and any customers.