[sword-devel] An apology ......

Tue, 6 May 2003 21:42:14 +0200

Joel,

Accepting your statement. To provide you some background. After Barry
objected to me personally, as stated in the snipped, I requested him to
forward that to the Dr. Hermanson, praying that the combination of these
might bring about a change of heart which it actually did. Not only did the
sword project try in to make an electronic copy available in the past, but I
was involved with another group on the same matter, as was a few others I
knew in the past, and there was no turning them then.

However I think it will suffice to say that the SA Bible Society agreed that
SWORD can publish the Afrikaans translations on the internet, with the
following statement:

"The copyright text of the 1933/53 translation of the Bible in Afrikaans is
usually subject to the payment of copyright fees, particularly when included
on a CD which is offered for sale. We have however, agreed that the text may
be offered for free download to use with Sword software, on the condition
that the following words appear in an appropriate position on the website:
"This copyright Bible has kindly been made available by the Bible Society of
South Africa. To contribute towards the distribution of affordable Bibles in
South Africa Click: http://www.biblesociety.co.za/contributions.htm."

This will then make it possible for you to offer an electronic Bible in
Afrikaans to those who require it, and at the same time give them the
opportunity to help us in our mission to make affordable Bibles available to
all in South Africa."

He did make a further comment on the fact that they are doing some more
translations into African language, e.g. Southern Ndebele, which still does
not have a full bible in their language for which they do require funds.
They are totally dependant on donations for their work.

I do believe that we actually bridged a major gap and should now try to
build onto this "new relationship" with them. We do have the change to make
that an example for the others still holding onto their "copyright
protections", and maybe able to guide more into the wider use of technology
for the advancement of the Word of God.

That does not go so say that I would at all change my attitude (nor the
verbalising of such -- which I believe was an inspiration from above this
time around) that the Word of God should be free from restrictions in any
form whatsoever, of which copyrights is just one aspect. Just happened to be
His instrument for this one, abother day He may use somebody else.

It is good to tell you all: It's been some years since I looked at the Sword
site. I was downloading some Linux applications when I came accross a Java
based application that referenced the site, and then decide to give that a
try. Being on the Linux server I did not have any bible text on that, so I
went to the SWORD site to download a translation or two to test the Jave
software with. Right on top of the list was Afrikaans, being locked. I
wondered why and ended up on the Copyright page, remembering the past, and
knowing a little SA law, decided to advice Sword that the copyright of the
1953 are about to lapse. I think I copied that to the Bible Society as well,
who did reply. A snipped (already toned down by a business partner of mine)
of my reply was copied to the list. I must admit that, based on past
history, I was not confident at all on the possible success. However, once
again, I believe that my going to the Sword site was by His providence and
then achieving the above agreement, was not our work but His work, because
only God could have known that the time and conditions for a change of heart
on the matter was right, and He brought the right conditions to surface to
bridge the issue with the SA Bible society.

Thank our God and the Saviour for braking down this barrier.

In His Name
Johan Kok
(Messianic Tentmaker by His provision in the name of Y'shua)

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Mawhorter [mailto:joel-ml@mawhorter.org]
Sent: 06 May 2003 05:26
To: sword-devel@crosswire.org; sword-support@crosswire.org;
johankok@softhome.net
Subject: Re: [sword-devel] An apology ......

Greetings Barry,

I very much appreciate all of the hard work that you put into the Sword
project. However, I must strongly question what right you have to
singlehandedly determine the policy of a project made up of many different
people. I believe that if you take a look through the sword-devel archies
you
will find that Johan's comments do reflect the opinions of a number of
people
on this list. It is possible that, as you suggest, these types of comments
are counterproductive. It is also possible that Bible socities need some
prophetic help in being woken up from their slumber to the seriousness and
urgency of the task at hand. I am not on the sword-support list so I don't
have the full text of the original message that you are replying to. If in
that message, Johan claimed to speak for the Sword project then that was out
of place. Regardless, I believe it is very much out of place to try to
suppress the expression of opinions on debatable matters, both on and off
this list, when they are expressed in a calm and loving manner. What I find
especially disturbing is your apology on behalf of the Sword project to Dr.
Hermanson. How can you apologize on behalf of the people in this project who
agree with Johan? I for one hope that Dr. Hermanson does not disregard what
Johan has said but listens carefully to it and examines the attitude and
motivation of the Bible society he represents.

In Christ,

Joel

On May 6, 2003 03:55, Barry Drake wrote:
> Dear Dr. Hermanson ......
>
> May I apologise on behalf of the Sword Project for a message sent you by
> Johan Kok.  His attitude does not reflect the policy of the Sword Project
> and should be disregarded.  Please accept my personal apology for any
> offense caused.  I have written to him as follows:
>
> On 6 May 2003 at 9:00, Johan Kok wrote:
> > GOD gave his word for free. No man or organisation has the right to keep
> > it from His people with copyright laws, thus you are defeating the
object
> > of your society by blocking the free distribution of His word.
>
> I'm sorry but this kind of comment - whatever we may think privately - is
> NOT helpful to the Sword programme.  It has the opposite effect to opening
> doors, and means that when we later make approaches to copyright holders
> who have been bombarded with this kind of thing, we are not listened to at
> all.  Please, please keep this kind of thinking to yourselves or if you
> must, to the list!
>
> God bless,
> Barry
>
> -- From Barry Drake (The Revd) minister of the Netherfield United Reformed
> church, Nottingham see http://www.jesusinnetherfield.org.uk for our church
> homepages).
>
> Replies - b.drake@ntlworld.com
>
>
>
>
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