[sword-devel] Copyright Scripture distribution

[Joel Mawhorter]

On Wed, 08 Dec 1999, you wrote:
> 
> 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

Hi Jeff,

You may be right about getting a license. It would certainly be worth
contacting them. I will probably do that in the next few days.  I'll forward on
any responses I get.

I agree completely that their argument about the Chinese government is crazy. I
was going to reply with half a dozen reasons why that was a ridiculous defense
of their proper use statement. However, instead I asked what their reason for
existing is. IBS seems to be an organization with a noble purpose and great
stated objectives; however, they seem to have gotten lost somewhere worrying
about less important things. If their main objective is to make sure that
people don't misuse scripture then they should not translate or distribute
scripture at all. After all, scripture should only be in Latin since then only
"qualified" people can use and interpret it. (sound familiar?) 

Enough ranting for now.

In Christ,

Joel