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

[Paul Gear]

alecg@inwave.com wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Jan 30, 2001 at 01:58:03PM -0800, Chris Little wrote:
> > I'm totally interested in doing something like this.  I really don't know
> > how we would organize a commercial venture though.
> >
> > As an alternative to putting Sword under LGPL, thereby allowing other
> > non-open source groups/companies to benefit from Sword, I would suggest
> > licensing Sword to the commercial group specifically under a non-GPL
> > license.  That way, the commercial group can distribute binary-only software
> > under a commercial license while Sword-proper remains GPL.
> ...
> Perhaps the company could just provide a plug-in component that Sword
> would call to handle encrypted modules. The encrypted modules would
> also be provided by the company and could be included on the Sword CD
> after an agreement was signed. This way Sword itself could remain
> clearly open source and cooperation would be easier.

That's certainly a possibility, but it is still vulnerable to attack. 
(e.g. How does this encrypted module pass text to the display?  The
plain text could be intercepted at that level.)  It would also require
the aforementioned LGPL licensing change to Sword.

Paul
---------
"He must become greater; i must become less." - John 3:30
http://www.bigfoot.com/~paulgear