[sword-devel] Re: Copyright and STRONGS

[Chris Little]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Brandon Staggs wrote:

> That depends on how you look at it. I was told by ICR when discussing
> licensing with them that "everything on that disc" was copyrighted by the
> OLB. This would presumably include the PD works by Ernie etc. But it is
> possible that was simply an overstatement (and given that the NAS and NIV
> etc are on there, that would be obvious). Their contract specifically states
> that if one uses over 50% of the same material that is on the OLB, then the
> royalty is jacked up to 50% automatically, just for being a similar product,
> even though all that material is public domain and anyone ought to be able
> to use it. Competition is a serious concern of theirs, I think.
> 
> -Brandon

Maybe they meant the disc itself is copyrighted?  That would be a true
statement, fully legal and defensible.  But copyrighting a
collection/anthology like that doesn't mean anything about the contents.
It just means people can't legally copy your whole disc.

The only parts copyrightable by LP or ICR are those parts they wrote
themselves.  i.e. any editorializing or censoring within the works would
be copyrighted by them, but the rest is still PD -- and personally I'd
rather not have those parts in a work being passed off as that of a real
scholar or authority.

I'm not sure what their concerns are when it comes to competition.  I know
they make a decent income from licensing to commercial publishers like
BibleWorks.  I also know Larry has a Linux version or port of OLB in the
works--but I don't know if we should be concerned now, if ever, about
this competition.

--Chris Little