[jsword-devel] Re: JSword license

[Mike Kienenberger]

Mike Kienenberger <mkienenb@alaska.net> wrote:
> Can you provide me with a reference showing why knowing the format of the 
> data makes code using the data a derived work?  There is no commonality 
> between the c++ code used to convert an entire raw text file to a 
compressed 
> format and java code used to look up a particular verse.

Chris, don't bother answering this.   Even if it's legal to do what I did, 
it seems to clear to me that there's some opposition to any of the Sword 
Project data being used by anything other than GPL code.

There are a number of ways I KNOW that can be legally used to reverse 
engineer access to the data.  I can describe the format of the compressed 
file to someone else who writes a reader for it. I can write a GPL program 
that converts the data to another format.

But I didn't come here to cause trouble, or to "steal" someone's work.  So 
I'm going to delete what work I've done, and unsubscribe from jsword-devel, 
and look elsewhere for electronic access to the scriptures.   Maybe I'll 
just type them in or cut-and-paste them from electronic formats.

I will continue to use Sword for my personal use (I like the application), 
and you have my thanks for creating it.

It bothers me that some of you seem more eager to spread the "Gospel of GPL" 
than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.


> [W]ere code released that violated our license, we would probably begin 
encrypting all data
> and compressing using different algorithms or granularities.

By the way, this would violate the GPL license if done effectively.  :-)

Thanks for all of the time you all have spent with me on this issue.

-Mike