So I was at BlenderWiki a few days ago, and noticed that there was a link entitled Esential Blender. So I clicked on it. On this page was a zip of the entire book in .txt, and zips of all the images (except for chapter 1).
How does this work out? Wouldn’t there be some form of copyright issues? And if it is correct, then why hasn’t anyone ever made a .pdf (With the pictures put in place) of it?
Thank you.
Wierd. If there are no copyright issues somebody should upload a PDF (or multiple by chapter to keep the size down.) If there are copyright issues then it shouldn’t be there.
That would be a lot of typing and scanning to get all that stuff from anywhere but the original source…
The license is included in each chapter of the text. It’s the Blender Open Content License. I don’t the terms off the top of my head, but they’re right in there.
My guess as to why no one has done this: it’s a lot of work and people are either too lazy to even begin such a project or too lazy to finish it once they’ve begun.
Well, here is the page.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Books/Essential_Blender
Anyway, it would seem easier, to me, to scan in pages then type them all up in a .txt file.
Anyway, I would have actually bought the book if I had some spare money, and blender 2.50 wasn’t coming out so soon. (Actually that’s not true, I’d buy Elephant’s Dream, then the book). And I wouldn’t be buying it because it’s worth that much to me, but because I want to help blender, and I’m whiling to pay some bloated prices because blender’s free.:yes:
lol, actually those are the text files that were included on the CD.
The formatting and page layout of the book is copyright exclusively the Blender Foundation and is not released under an open content license so you can’t legally just scan them.
LetterRip
i believe they are up there so the community can help update the book, for future releases…(?)
Or translate, or read it on their monitor for convenience, etc…
And LetterRip is correct: the book as it appears in physical form is held by the Foundation under standard copyright. You scanny, I show up at your housey. :evilgrin:
Hi,
I tried to download the text file but the link seems to be dead. Can anyone fix it?
Thanks in advance,
gaiamuse
I just downloaded the text archive by clicking the link in the wiki. The .zip file decompressed without incident. Nothing seems to be wrong with the link – you might be having a local issue.
Thanks harkyman,
Sorry I didn’t get back to this thread. I did try again and was able to download the text file, but now I am having problems downloading the image files located on download.blender.org site, but not chapter 2 or any of the other files which are located on the blender wiki site. Maybe I will try again later.
cheers,
gaiamuse
Well, if the text is free, and we have the pictures, then we should set up a wiki page using the files.
Do you think BlenderWiki would take it?
I think eventually it will be incorporated into the wiki, as it is a great source of tutorials and reference.
Oh, then I won’t jump the gun.
I wonder what is the goal of having The Essential Blender online, especially in such a dismantled fashion and with download.blender.org that refuse connections (2 days now) for most images zips: if it is going to be a completely open book let’s make it actually available.
If not, and I for one wonder why it shouldn’t be reserved to finance the Foundation, then let’s be clear about that too.
Sometimes there seem to be a plan to make sure that confusion is reigning on Blender’s documentation…
Jean
I have tried several times these past few days to download the images with no luck unfortunately. Can someone please check the download.blender.org links? I read on another thread that someone else was also having problems downloading the images.
And where are the images for Chapter 7?
Also, the chapter on lighting included some .blend files. Is it possible to have some of the .blend files for the other chapters as well? Like IamInnocent mentioned, if the book is Blender Open Content, which it is, (just not the layout and design of the book), than it should be made available for people to download.
cheers,
gaiamuse
I just wanted to add thank you to all the people who have made the Essential Blender book possible. Sorry, I forgot that in my last message.
cheers,
gaiamuse
Unfortunately download.blender.org is down now - there is a message about it at the main blender.org page.
LetterRip
Also, the text and images are considered open content, under the BOC license. No one said the book was “completely open.”
A ton of time and resources were put into making the book in the first place, and I’d estimate that about another 10% of that original effort would be required to put it online in a really useful format that complied with the license. Personally, I don’t have that kind of free time. Maybe other people do.
Yep, that’s one of the two reason’s I haven’t done it yet. The other is because their doing something with the Essential Blender page, and I don’t want to go out, make the wiki, just to find it useless.