[sword-devel] need advice on modules, copyrights, etc.

[Steve Tang]

Mr. Dolphin takes care of Stedman library and he was very responsive to
work with people to have the libraries (he has another site) distributed
widely. His email address is dolphin@best.com.

There are brothers who take care of copyright issues for Sword. I don't
know the details though.

Steve Tang...

On Wed, 3 Jul 2002, Ross, Perry wrote:

> Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 16:26:27 -0400 
> From: "Ross, Perry" <Perry.Ross@ca.com>
> Reply-To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> To: "Sword-Devel (E-mail)" <sword-devel@crosswire.org>
> Subject: [sword-devel] need advice on modules, copyrights, etc.
> 
> I was thinking of making a commentary module from Ray Stedman's "Adventuring
> through the Bible".
> (See http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/adventure/index.html).  I've read the
> instructions on using the
> module-making tools, and that all seems pretty straightforward, but I had
> some questions on copyrights.
> 
> The copyright on all Stedman material allows copying for free distribution
> under the normal conditions
> (no modifications, distributed in full with copyright intact, etc), so as
> far as I (a non-lawyer) can tell,
> I'm perfectly welcome to package this material up in a module and give it
> away.  However, I would
> be inclined to ask for permission anyway, just to be sure everyone is happy.
> Is this generally done?
> Are there any sample letters that people have used?  What kind of
> documentation does crosswire.org
> need to have before a module goes on the website?
> 
> What about more challenging modules, such as old books that are presumably
> in the public domain?
> For example, Seiss "Apocalypse" was copyrighted in 1865, but is still in
> print today (and claimed to
> be under copyright).  Let's assume I feel like scanning and OCR'ing 800-some
> pages.  Is it legal?
> Would I have to scan an old copy whose copyright has expired?  And would I
> need to keep some
> sort of proof that that's what I did?
> 
> Sorry for so many question marks.  If anyone has any ideas, they'd be
> welcome.
> 
> Thanks!  -- Perry
> 

Steve Tang...