[sword-devel] what problem are you trying to solve? (Re: encryption and integrity checking.)

[Karl Kleinpaste]

I wonder why we stress so much over encryption and avoidance of copying,
right down to copy/paste.  Nobody else does.

Libronix, which I believe has the strongest per-user license mechanism
and encryption facility in any Bible software today, nonetheless makes
it possible to copy/paste in such a manner that even Bible footnotes are
preserved with proper formatting when pasting into Word.  I've
experimented with this myself, when the question arose elsehow quite
some time ago.  This is DM's problem #3, and it is not only an unsolved
problem in Libronix, it is not even addressed -- indeed, one could say
that it is facilitated in the opposite direction, because Libronix helps
make exactly that form of copying look better, whole chapters at a time,
possibly whole books at a time.

Why is this such a larger issue for our apps than it is for Libronix?
If publishers are balking at making modules available for Sword
applications, what is their argumentative basis?  Given the utter,
complete lack of any actual protection scheme in e-Sword modules, and
yet with e-Sword having support of a number of modules available that we
have not been able to secure (esp. NIV), what exactly is the problem in
need of address, and why have we failed to make a case when in fact we
do have an encryption scheme that is far superior to e-Sword?  (Yes, you
may feel free to whine about the manner of key storage in most Sword
apps.  That is a distraction.  Please address the core problem.)

A while back, a passage exporter was implemented for Xiphos.  A request
came along that we reduce the available scope of export, so as to
prevent excess copying.  I disabled the "whole book" option, leaving
chapter and verse export in place, but I didn't like doing so and I
truly don't see the point and I have no idea who is out there that could
be convinced that we have saved anyone anything by having done so.

Please tell me why Sword applications are so "special," compared to
Logos and e-Sword.  Until there is an answer to that question, all the
complex technical solutions to what is potentially a non-problem don't
mean a thing.