[sword-devel] Updating copyrighted modules

[Chris Little]

Andrew, we've already established that you just plainly don't understand 
copyright. You think it simply doesn't apply to you if you don't feel 
like having it apply to you. That's why you are still hosting illegally 
produced copies of translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We established 
this a while back.

I believe we have exactly zero exclusive licenses to distribute content. 
If we had an exclusive license for a translation, that would indicate 
that no one else could have a license to distribute that translation. 
(It's common to limit exclusivity to a particular domain, so many 
translations will have exclusive print publishing licenses but 
non-exclusive electronic publishing licenses so that material can appear 
in various electronic formats.)

We don't pretend that we have exclusive control over any content (except 
arguably that content which we have produced ourselves). That control 
obviously resides with the copyright holder. That is the essence of 
copyright.

So, when we direct you to not redistribute content on your server, it's 
because you're breaking the law by doing so. The distribution rights 
that we negotiate are rights that have been granted to CrossWire and do 
not transfer to others unless the copyright holder explicitly permits it.

--Chris


On 1/6/2013 7:21 AM, Andrew Thule wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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
>     <mailto:refdoc at gmx.net>> wrote:
>
>
>          > Von: Manfred Bergmann <manfred.bergmann at me.com
>         <mailto:manfred.bergmann at me.com>>
>
>          > Am 06.01.2013 um 09:50 schrieb Andrew Thule
>         <thulester at gmail.com <mailto: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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