[sword-devel] question

[Chris Little]

I doubt Logos or BibleWorks would ever do such a thing since they each
have higher-quality databases of most of our modules that they would
want.  But let's suppose they wanted to use some relatively unknown
translation like the AKJV...

Since we don't own copyright on any of the texts, we would have no claim
against them.  (Yes, some other Bible software packages/text preparers
claim copyright because they put some tags in or do a little processing,
but US copyright law disagrees with them here.)  GPL protects our code,
since that is ours, and the content is a whole other matter.  They would
basically have to take up the issue with the actual copyright holders,
just as we do.

And more importantly, if a company like Logos or Hermeneutika wanted to
use material from our text library, I would invite them to do so.  What
do we stand to gain from preventing them from doing so?  Probably less
than the users of Logos or BibleWorks would stand to gain from having
the AKJV or OrthJBC available in their chosen package.

If you check the source tree, you'll find the start of a filter to
convert ThML from Sword to OLB's standard markup.  (They were using our
modules anyway, but assuming they were in sequential vpl format, which
they certainly no longer are, due to out-of-order books and/or
compression.)  I'd happily write the same for any other software that
gave me their markup spec.

--Chris


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org 
> [mailto:owner-sword-devel@crosswire.org] On Behalf Of mg.pub@gmx.net
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 9:11 AM
> To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Subject: [sword-devel] question
> 
> 
> Just a question: What if a commercial tool
> like Logos or BibleWorks decides to include
> the wonderful sword modules (not the lib)?
> 
> Is that possible or will the GPL prohibit that?
> Are the modules GPL?
> 
> Martin