[sword-devel] Cool idea: Commercial Linux /Windows Bible prog ram based on Sword

[sword-devel@crosswire.org]

Bob Pritchett writes:

> I'm afraid I'm not in a position to give advice on approaching specific
> organizations. 
> 
> I can say, however, that we have a full-time person who does nothing but
> call on publishers, with three other people regularly involved. It's a lot
> of work.
> 
> Did I ever mention that Logos was initially written to be a shareware
> project? My partner and I wrote version 1.0 in our spare time and were going
> to distribute it as shareware over BBS's, etc. (back in the pre-web days)
> 
> It was our inability to get licenses to copyrighted texts like the NIV, etc.
> that compelled us to create a company, quit our jobs, and make a commercial
> product.
> 
> So I'm very sympathetic to the problem you're facing with these texts and
> publishers, but you can see what solution I chose to the problem. :-)

Thanks for your insight Bob.  I have a question that I would like to know
about from a business perspective.

It seems to me that Bible software is relatively expensive compared to
"similar" software used for secular programs.  I may be simplifying too
much, but do you think that this is more a factor of licensing / copyright
issues, or is it just a factor of a more limited market and the fixed costs
of running a company are paid by fewer customers?

Also, on a different issue, the Lockman Foundation releases their version
of software with the NASB for free (with limitations) and yet charges
companies like yours a licensing fee to use the same text...  Speaking
hypothetically, so you don't have to release sensitive information.  Other
than the licensing fees, which I assume are relatively small per copy, are
there other requirements typically imposed to license Bible texts for
distribution?  If so, what types of requirements are there?

--
   Darwin Gregory

   Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
   Evolution is a myth...