[sword-devel] Copyright Scripture distribution

[The Schmidts]

Joel Mawhorter wrote:

>
> Hi Jeff,
>
> Did you see the letters I forwarded to the list from the Canadian Bible Society
> and the International Bible Society? I think those letters make their stance
> fairly clear. If you missed them, I can send them to you. I was just trying to
> get permission to use some of their non-English translations.  Getting
> permission to distribute the NIV would be even harder, since that is what they
> make most of their money on. I'm not saying this to try to discourage anyone
> from trying. I'm just pointing out that the comment you replyed to was indeed
> justified.
>
> In Christ
>
> Joel

Hi, sorry I took so long to respond.  The night you sent this out I went back searching
through my sword-devel folder looking for your message and found it, and read it.  I
didn't have time that night to respond, and I left to go out of town for a few days the
next morning.
Anyhow, it does sound somewhat discouraging, but, perhaps, we may have some success.
For example, you seemed to ask IBS about their Fair Use rules.  If we were to ask for a
license, they may be more willing to grant that license to us, specifically, than to
revise their fair use statement which covers _everybody_ generally (which, btw, I agree
with you, I believe they should have more liberal fair use policies, for what it's
worth; and as an aside, that statement they made about trying to keep the chinese
government from abusing the scriptures is one of the lamest arguments I've ever heard,
I mean, if the chinese government wants to mis-quote scripture, they're not going to
let such a little thing as copyrights stand in their way [and who are you going to sue,
in what court, if they violate your copyright ;-) ] )

Jeff Schmidt