

Peter Thiel’s startup class notes in PDF - tomazstolfa
http://klinger.io/post/28064173056/peter-thiels-startup-class-notes-as-pdf

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alagu
This is awesome. But, I hope Blake is fine with this. I did the same thing
earlier, scraped the posts and created a epub. He immediately sent me an
email:

 _Please remove the ePub version of my notes that you put on Github.

Peter Thiel, Clarium, and I are still figuring out what to do with the
content. Very likely we will be publishing something ourselves.

As you do not own the content and did not ask for permission, please take down
the doc immediately

(You can of course do this for personal use. Just please don't distribute it
right now.)_

~~~
andreasklinger
Thanks for mentioning. I hope i didnt crossed a line. I will remve the dl link
tomorrow (as soon as i have a proper laptop in front of me)

~~~
crasshopper
Andreas, rdd.me has a very nice facility for sending web pages to the Kindle.

Also, here is what @bgmasters has already said about reproducing the content:
[http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-
share-p...](http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-please-
dont-transform-or-sell)

~~~
obtu
Then his stated goals shouldn't prevent people making conversions to other
formats. You just have to be careful with not misrepresenting the work,
something that is already part of the non-transferable author rights in a few
countries.

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maxprogram
And the same thing in "book" version ready to print/read:

<http://img.atlastory.com/PeterThielOnStartups.pdf>

~~~
maxprogram
Ah sorry had to take it down, didn't know about the terms attached.

I made the PDF personally to turn into a printed/binded copy (I like physical
books) with nice typography and after seeing the HN post thought I'd share.

If anyone still really wants this fancier version follow/msg me on twitter:
@maxolson

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FraaJad
Masters is not OK with this. See earlier post:
[http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-
share-p...](http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-please-
dont-transform-or-sell)

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ghurlman
How does this not violate the No Derivatives portion of the content license?

~~~
rrjamie
Given that this is licensed Creative Commons under Attribution, Non-
Commercial, and No Derivative Works, -- and notwithstanding a general desire
to respect the authors wishes
([http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-
share-p...](http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-please-
dont-transform-or-sell)) -- it becomes a question as to whether it is a truly
_derivative_ work.

Since the meat-and-potatoes of the work is entirely textual, and faithfully
reproduced, you could argue that work is non-derivative and within the
license.

CC puts two additional restrictions on “transformation” and “alteration,” but
it is not clear on what those would be. It would be reasonable to argue in the
spirit of the license, that as long as we do not alter the meaning, intent, or
spirit of the original work we did not alter or transform it. Any stricter
interpretation would like defeat the purpose of licensing something CC, as any
form of distribution requires some, however small, amount of altering (eg, I
have to convert it to photons before I can hit your retinas).

There are precedents for what is considered a “derivative work” in the US, but
usually as to define “new” works that may desire protection, but not likely as
many in this reverse situation where we wish to argue that a slightly altered
version is equivalent.

If I made printed-to-PDF from my web browser, is that a derivative work? a
transformation? a substantial alteration?

If we take a strict (perhaps stretched) interpretation of Masters desires: you
should read it only on my website and share only links to it from there? Then
why license it as CC BY-NC-ND? Such interpretation of the license gives you no
rights you did not have before under fair use (or fair dealing).

~~~
andreasklinger
Can you iterate on this a bit more. Based on this I am actually a bit unsure
if blake is not miss-interpreting BY-NC-ND at all.

E.g. <http://mollykleinman.com/2008/10/20/cc-howto-no-derivatives/>
interpretes the legal text like this: "The key words here are “recast,
transformed, or adapted.” A derivative work involves enough creativity and
originality that it constitutes a new copyrightable work. Simply converting a
work from one medium to another — from print to digital, or CD to MP3 — does
not produce a derivative work."

Not that it matters - they asked people not to create epubs/pdfs so i removed
mine just to respect the wish.

I just want to learn for future issues.

~~~
rrjamie
That's a great link. I think it matches my interpretation of the No
Derivatives provision.

I think you are very much in the free and clear from the standpoint of the
license. The language of the CC license does say that you are free to
reproduce it and include it in collections. It even suggests that the media in
question is not important: "rights may be exercised in all media and formats
whether now known or hereafter devised". There's no point in making reference
to "hereafter devised" media if they medium is assume to be fixed at the time
of license.

Further, "[the] rights include the right to make such modifications as are
technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats" which
clearly gives you the right to change mediums as long as we do not violate the
clause on adaptations.

The adaptation clause, of course, it up for some interpretation. However, the
definition of a _derivative_ work under US Copyright law is likely what was
envisioned. If it was not, it would have probably been a huge blunder to call
this the "No Derivatives" license. The standard test here seems to be whether
the transformation had any significant creative input, and since you
conversion was almost purely mechanical, I would argue that it was not
significant enough to be considered a derivative.

One thing you did forget to do was to include the CC license itself.

Disclaimer: IANAL (or Copyright Scholar). YMMV.

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rdudekul
At around 27MB download, this notes PDF is more of a medium sized book. I
browsed the first few pages and it looks great. Will need a few hours to study
it and get into Peter's head to see how he sees the world.

~~~
swah
I found the original notes much easier to consume:
<http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup/>

The pdf has a very big font, probably for reading on the Kindle.

~~~
andreasklinger
Yes it's made for the kindle. Sorry. I figured too late i could have done it
as html converted mobi/epub file.

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richardburton
Thanks for taking the time to do this.

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mwsherman
Here they are as a Readlist, which one can send to Kindle all chapter-ized.
<http://readlists.com/eff6d6d6/>

~~~
andreasklinger
Readlist looks great. Thanks for the hint. I think i will use this from now on
instead of copypasting like a monkey. ;)

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Starmie
Does anyone know if he plans to teach the course again? I'd love to take it
before I graduate...

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swah
Anyone has actually read the thing and can make a little "lessons learned"
summary?

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baritalia
It might be a great read. I'm sure plenty of young people will find this
useful.

Are there any similar books/notes/pdfs around?

~~~
wololo
Ben Horowitz and David Weiden on product management:

* [http://khoslaventures.com/presentations/Good_Product_Manager...](http://khoslaventures.com/presentations/Good_Product_Manager_Bad_Product_Manager_KV.doc)

* [http://khoslaventures.com/presentations/Good_Group_Product_M...](http://khoslaventures.com/presentations/Good_Group_Product_Manager.doc)

~~~
andreasklinger
Thanks!

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alpine
I've turned Blake's blog posts into an audio collection simply using Apple's
built in Text to Speech. It makes for a remarkably listenable series.

