h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok, so the BBC gets the rights to republish and recirculate whatever is submitted. That's ok, I'm not likely to be overly possessive of my stuff: but I would like to know, why is this? What are the Beeb likely to do with said articles? Would they be used for research, or printed in a magazine or anything? I'm just curious really. Shall I stand in the corner and shut me trap now?

We don't have any concrete plans for publishing h2g2 content on other media at this stage - if we did, you'd know about it by now! - but thee have been various ideas floated about. One of the things we would definitely try to ensure would be:

* We wouldn't try to make money out of the content; if we did, then it would most likely be donated to a BBC affiliated charity like Children in Need, or it might be used to (say) buy a new server for the site. We'd certainly be unhappy if any profit simply disappeared into the BBC's coffers.

* We would try to ensure that credits were retained, though with some of the entries with 60 names on the list there may be a problem. This would need thought, but we'd be keen to ensure h2g2's Researchers were credited fairly.

Given this, there's the possibility that we may do things like printed versions of the Edited Guide in the future, or CD-ROMs of the Guide, but it's not a priority. h2g2 is a living, breathing, organic site, and trying to capture that in a fixed format like print or CD is only ever going to tell half the story. The emphasis will always be on the site, and the people who actually write the Guide.

Thank you for satisfying my curiosity