[sword-devel] John Gill

[Don A. Elbourne Jr.]

You would probably like Eric Eldred's site: http://www.eldritchpress.org/


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org
> [mailto:owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org]On Behalf Of Chris Little
> Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 12:47 AM
> To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Subject: RE: [sword-devel] John Gill
>
>
> See the US Copyright Office circular entitled "Copyright Registration for
> Derivative Works" (http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ14.pdf) for the
> rules on "derivative works".  My favorite passage of the circular
> is: "To be
> copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from
> the original
> to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of new
> material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a
> preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright
> purposes. The new material must be original and copyright-able in itself.
> Titles, short phrases, and format, for example, are not
> copyrightable."  In
> other words, roman to arabic, corrections, & formatting aren't even
> copyrightable.
>
> Larry P really considers the Gill Expositor his baby.  He talks
> about it in
> just about every interview he gives as being this wonderful and monumental
> accomplishment of >his<.
>
> While he and others whose content we reformat to SWORD
> compatability may not
> have a legal leg to stand on, that doesn't prevent them from suing.  (Woo
> hoo, don't you love America, land of the free, home of the litigious.)
> Anyone feel like starting a preventative PD text legal defense fund (or
> better yet know of one already started)?  I believe I recall some stories
> about Larry placing digital watermarks in texts he didn't even create or
> sponsor (texts from bf.org IIRC) and then threatening to sue for unfair
> competition or some other such ludicrous thing.  Correct me if I'm wrong,
> those of you who know the story better--or am I completely confused? :)
>
> --Chris Little
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org
> [mailto:owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org]On Behalf Of Brandon Staggs
> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 9:02 PM
> To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Subject: Re: [sword-devel] John Gill
>
>
> For something to be copyrighten it needs to be a creative work. Somehow he
> believes that having volunteers type it in, then correcting errors, and
> don't forget: changing roman numberals to digits is a creative work.
>
> It would never hold up in a court of law. He has done this simply to
> discourage other people for 'benefiting' from volunteer work (as if the
> Online Bible is free or something -- last time I looked the price
> of the CD
> was $60 and climbing!).
>
> He has a history of placing copyrights on volunteer work. That's
> why many of
> his volunteers no longer submit there work to him - no names
> mentioned, but
> I know a few.
>
> -Brandon
>