[jsword-devel] Re: [sword-devel] Sword license

Joe Walker jsword-devel@crosswire.org
Sun, 28 Sep 2003 11:41:59 +0100 

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Hi,

I probably own the copyright to 90%+ of JSword and my personal 
priorities put helping people to read and understand the Bible above 
philosophical ideals of software freedom. However even though the answer 
from me would be "not sure it depends", you would also need to get the 
agreement of:
- Mark Goodwin
- Jacky Cheung
- Keith Ralston
And here's the biggy:
- Troy Griffitts, and anyone else who contributed to the Sword module 
code (a fair bit of the Sword module drivers are a fairly direct port 
(or derived work in copyrighteze) from the Sword code)

So the long and short is that it is probably too late.
Maybe it would be easier for me to persuade you to use the GPL for your 
games?

Joe.

Mike Kienenberger wrote:

>I'm a games developer, and I'm interested in developing games incorporating 
>bible verses.
>I've looked around, and I found the Sword project.   However, since I do all 
>
>of my work in Java and the Sword project was in C++, I figured I'd end up 
>having to write my own classes to read the data sources, and began to do so, 
>
>especially since what little I saw of the Sword source didn't appear to 
>follow a well-designed (in my own opinion of course) object model.
>
>However, I decided to do a search on the web and found Jsword.  It looks 
>like you have a well-defined API accessing data in the drivers.
>
>However, you're only releasing it under GPL, that means I can't use it since 
>
>I use other APIs that are incompatible with GPL.
>
>Is there any chance you could release the API under LGPL or Apache or BSD or 
>
>some other more developer-friendly License?  The only comment in the mailing 
>
>list archive I found on licensing seemed ambivalent.
>
>Thanks,
>
>-Mike
>
>
>Joe Walker <joe@eireneh.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>>>If I read the Sword/JSword source code and from that 
>>    
>>
>design/information 
>  
>
>>>>write (port would be accurate?) classes, methods, etc. in Squeak 
>>    
>>
>to 
>  
>
>>>>process Sword Modules would I be obligated to also use the GPL?
>>
>>>If you write your own classes in Squeak to read Sword modules, you're 
>>    
>>
>not
>  
>
>>>incorporating Sword GPL code into your work.  If you read our code to 
>>    
>>
>see
>  
>
>>>how we do it and then write your own code to perform the same 
>>    
>>
>functions, 
>  
>
>>>you're not violating our copyright.
>>
>>[...]
>>
>>HOWEVER in a way that is probably irrelevant because if you read any of 
>>the JSword code that I wrote then I'm totally happy for you to write a 
>>non-GPL, open source program based on it, and I'll copy this message to 
>>jsword-devel to see what Mark thinks - Mark's opinion here is more 
>>important than mine because he wrote more of the Java version of the 
>>Sword drivers than me.
>>    
>>
>_______________________________________________
>jsword-devel mailing list
>jsword-devel@crosswire.org
>http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/jsword-devel
>  
>


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<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
I probably own the copyright to 90%+ of JSword and my personal
priorities put helping people to read and understand the Bible above
philosophical ideals of software freedom. However even though the
answer from me would be "not sure it depends", you would also need to
get the agreement of:<br>
- Mark Goodwin<br>
- Jacky Cheung<br>
- Keith Ralston <br>
And here's the biggy:<br>
- Troy Griffitts, and anyone else who contributed to the Sword module
code (a fair bit of the Sword module drivers are a fairly direct port
(or derived work in copyrighteze) from the Sword code)<br>
<br>
So the long and short is that it is probably too late.<br>
Maybe it would be easier for me to persuade you to use the GPL for your
games?<br>
<br>
Joe.<br>
<br>
Mike Kienenberger wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid0309271341.AA006413@pavilion">
  <pre wrap="">I'm a games developer, and I'm interested in developing games incorporating 
bible verses.
I've looked around, and I found the Sword project.   However, since I do all 

of my work in Java and the Sword project was in C++, I figured I'd end up 
having to write my own classes to read the data sources, and began to do so, 

especially since what little I saw of the Sword source didn't appear to 
follow a well-designed (in my own opinion of course) object model.

However, I decided to do a search on the web and found Jsword.  It looks 
like you have a well-defined API accessing data in the drivers.

However, you're only releasing it under GPL, that means I can't use it since 

I use other APIs that are incompatible with GPL.

Is there any chance you could release the API under LGPL or Apache or BSD or 

some other more developer-friendly License?  The only comment in the mailing 

list archive I found on licensing seemed ambivalent.

Thanks,

-Mike


Joe Walker &amp;lt;joe@eireneh.com&amp;gt; wrote:
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;&amp;gt;If I read the Sword/JSword source code and from that 
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->design/information 
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;&amp;gt;write (port would be accurate?) classes, methods, etc. in Squeak 
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->to 
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;&amp;gt;process Sword Modules would I be obligated to also use the GPL?

&amp;gt;If you write your own classes in Squeak to read Sword modules, you're 
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->not
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;incorporating Sword GPL code into your work.  If you read our code to 
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->see
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;how we do it and then write your own code to perform the same 
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->functions, 
  </pre>
  <blockquote type="cite">
    <pre wrap="">&amp;gt;you're not violating our copyright.

[...]

HOWEVER in a way that is probably irrelevant because if you read any of 
the JSword code that I wrote then I'm totally happy for you to write a 
non-GPL, open source program based on it, and I'll copy this message to 
jsword-devel to see what Mark thinks - Mark's opinion here is more 
important than mine because he wrote more of the Java version of the 
Sword drivers than me.
    </pre>
  </blockquote>
  <pre wrap=""><!---->_______________________________________________
jsword-devel mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jsword-devel@crosswire.org">jsword-devel@crosswire.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/jsword-devel">http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/jsword-devel</a>
  </pre>
</blockquote>
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