[sword-devel] John Gill

[Brandon Staggs]

> Your example of making a print edition available at cost is a non-issue.
> Obviously, the costs of printing, distribution and organising the issue
have
> to be factored in.  BTW, I am not against your company making money from
> Bible software.  I do have a problem with any company, be it Microsoft,
> RedHat or Logos, taking PD texts, typing them, performing formatting on
> these texts and making money from them without providing them Free of
> Charge.

I have to disagree with this -- would you demand that a publisher makes
"Moby Dick" available free of charge in print just because it's PD? Of
course not. They don't have to.

All I object to is someone claiming ownership of a PD text and then
threatening to sue if I use it -- as has been done to me. Logos may not be
making their editions of PD texts available for free, but as long as they
don't claim to own the text, that's fine with me. If someone extracts the
text from their program and then republishes it, that is fine too -- because
the text is PD! But they are not under any obligation to give it away for
free if they don't want to.

An example is CTI's electornic edition of Webster's 1828 Dictionary. It is a
PD text they distribute. I contacted them about obtaining a
non-encrypeted/compressed copy of it for my use, and they acknowledged that
they do not have a copyright on the text, but declined to allow me to use
their copy of it. While I disagree with their decision, I don't find it
immoral.

-Brandon