[sword-devel] Updating copyrighted modules

[Andrew Thule]

Yes, exactly Chris.

Both Chris and Peter have publicly accused me of breaking the law (thus
tarnishing my reputation, and sullied my efforts to contribute).  This
implies I've breeched the terms of Crosswire's licensing agreement with the
ISV foundation as the Copyright owner.  What exactly is the agreement
Crosswire's reached with the ISV Foundation, and what are its terms (since
I've apparently broken them)?  Is Crosswire's legal right to distribute
Copyright text on behalf of the ISV foundation even covered by a license
agreement?  Does this agreement's terms extend to module developers who
volunteer to assist, or not? If no such Licensing Agreement exists between
the Copyright owner and Crosswire, I am not only innocent of the charges
Peter and Chris have accused me of that I have broken some law,  I have
been falsely accused (and my reputation sullied wrongfully), but those
levelling accusations against me are hypocrites for accusing me of these
things, while themselves making false claims.

Furthermore, if Crosswire itself doesn't have actual licensing agreements
with the Copyright owners proving it possesses distribution rights, it
doesn't in fact have legal right to distribute texts despite the licensing
claim contained in the .conf files.  In this case it has no right to
castigate me for believing such a permissions exists protecting Crosswire
developers (and this is also plain hypocrisy). This same logic applies to
all of the modules Crosswire claims exclusive rights to.   For each module
this claim is made, licensing terms much exist or Crosswire is making false
claims and arbitrarily using these false rights as a lever against module
developers it finds less favourable.

Thought Peter has not yet explicitly specified module's I've 'distributed'
that belong to Crosswire, which of these actually have these rights granted
through a licensing agreement.  Does Crosswire in fact have exclusive right
to distribute these texts (and deny others that right)?  Questions like
these are addressed by making public the licensing agreements (perhaps in
the wiki). I can't see any reason making such licensing agreements public
is a bad idea.  It would only be a bad idea if Crosswire doesn't in fact
have such agreements in place.  As I said previously, I can see lots of
benefits (including exonerating my reputation from false claims of
illegality, and character assassination).  If Crosswire is not willing to
make pubic the agreements under which it operates, terms it claims grant it
exclusive control over distribution of certain copyright texts it IS being
secretive and arbitrary (Manfred).

~A


On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 9:05 AM, Chris Burrell <chris at burrell.me.uk> wrote:

> I think what Andrew meant by "secretive" is that there doesn't seem to be
> an obvious documented place where there is a link between who owns the
> relationship with the copyright holder, who generated the module in the
> first place, and who if different is the person maintaining the module.
>
> Chris
>
>
> On 6 Jan 2013 11:09, "Peter von Kaehne" <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> > Von: Manfred Bergmann <manfred.bergmann at me.com>
>>
>> > Am 06.01.2013 um 09:50 schrieb Andrew Thule <thulester at gmail.com>:
>> >
>> > >  The site makes it seem like anyone can contribute to module creation,
>> > modification.
>> > >
>> >
>> > Anyone can contribute to module creation.
>>
>> Thanks, Manfred. Indeed, anyone can. We have hundreds of modules produced
>> by dozens of contributors.
>>
>> What you can not do is publish on your own server what is licensed to
>> CrossWire.
>>
>> What we do not want is that people interfere in existing relationships
>> around existing copyrighted modules. Certainly not by breaching copyright
>> and publishing such modules on their own server.
>>
>> Hardly secretive cabale...
>>
>> Peter
>>
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