Missing comma in page 3

[Tyler James]

Perhaps a bit too picky, but ought to be a comma on page three, in the copyright, after "we permit". This may be due to localization issues.

"We permit, and even encourage you to distribute a copy of this book to colleagues, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested."

Like that.

[Kevin Godby (godbyk)]

Why should there be a comma there?

I would think that if you put a comma after 'We permit', you'd also need a comma after 'encourage', making the phrase 'and even encourage' parenthetical (which would be better set off with dashes).

Compare:

"We permit and even encourage you to distribute a copy of this book to colleagues, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested."

with:

"We permit—and even encourage—you to distribute a copy of this book to colleagues, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested."

I think the word 'and' indicates that it's not really parenthetical and that 'permit and ... encourage' are parallel verbs in this sentence.

What do you think?

[Tyler James (tylerbrainerd)]

Hmm. Dashes may even be better. I think you could technically do it either way, but the dashes are probably a better solution.

[ilya haykinson (haykinson)]

I agree that neither a comma nor a dash is needed. The phrase is not parenthetical.