[sword-devel] Copyrights and cash

[Don A. Elbourne Jr.]

Troy,

I hope it did not sound like I was criticizing the way you run the show
here. I appreciate all you guys have done and think you are doing an
outstanding job. My email was just to point out the possibilities of the
future and hopefully stir excitement for that direction.

As for module creation, are the tools you are referring to addvs and addld?
I read the documentation and while I do not mind working with command line
utilities I am still a little apprehensive to dive into trying to create a
module. I think Joe Christian wouldn't even think to try. Most
non-programmers would throw in the towel when they read things like, "simply
use your favorite scripting language to write a script..." I am not
complaining, just making an observation.

As I said in my email, I know that asking for a SwordWritter type program is
a little premature at this point. I might be completely off base, but if I
understand the OSIS developments, this is what I am talking about. How cool
would it be if an end user could use OpenOffice.org to create their
documents in a WYSIWYG type of environment. Then since OpenOffice.org's
native format is XML, it should not be difficult to convert the file to OSIS
and then to Sword. Or perhaps there is a way to extend OpenOffice.org to
save directly into OSIS.  There are a lot of possibilities.


by grace alone,

Don A. Elbourne Jr.
http://elbourne.org



----- Original Message -----
From: "Troy A. Griffitts" <scribe@crosswire.org>
To: <sword-devel@crosswire.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: [sword-devel] Copyrights and cash


> Thanks for all the comments.  A few of my own...
>
> We have module making docs available and DESIRE others to make modules
> We have command line utilities available and DESIRE others to make
modules.
> Chris would really LOVE for others to make modules.
> Enough said about that.
>
>
> Legit issue:  Although we can't prevent others from distributing
> unorthodox content, I wish they wouldn't.  I don't believe anyone thinks
> they can control this problem, and we would never think of limiting
> module creation to a few individuals to try.  We do, however, have say
> over what gets distributed on CrossWire's website, and I am not
> personally qualified to make all these decision.  I would love for a few
> trusted experts to own this.
>
> Chris has started a GUI import/export tool.
> The API is really catered toward making such tools.  I believe most all
> f our module drivers support our Writable interface now, which allows
> easy adding, deleting, linking content in a module.
>
> Our module security offers true 128 bit encryption of texts.  Once a
> user has an unlock key, there is nothing that prevents that user from
> sharing this key with other people.  But this is the same will every
> software package I own, as well as all versions of Microsoft Windows up
> until XP-- and I don't think we wish to venture down that path.  To sum
> up: I belive our security is as good-- and mostly better-- than other
> software packages on the market.
>
> In our distribution request letters, we offer, as a final alternative,
> for the copyright holder to distribute their module, themselves, for a
> fee, if they wish.
>
> I am not against offering texts for a fee, if this is the only way we
> can make these texts available.  I WOULD like the fee to be as low as
> possible, and NOT from a 'for profit' company.  I don't offer my time so
> others can make a profit from selling my work.  If it came down to a
> 'for profit' company offering sword modules, that might be enough to
> push me over the edge to spend the time to offer the texts myself on
> CrossWire at just the royalty cost of the modules.  As stated before: I
> don't feel that is where my time is best spent.
>
>
> My hope to resolve this issue:  OSIS is becoming a widely accepted
> markup (at least conceptually) in many of these organization.  I hope a
> widespread library of OSIS texts will be available, and I feel we will
> be the first software package to support these texts.
>
> As we continue to build relationships with organizations and our Windows
> frontend continues to develop, we have had continued interested in using
> sword to offer their texts to their target people groups-- this is
> especially true for non-english Bible societies.
>
>