[sword-devel] ESV

[Michael Johnson]

Thank you, Troy, for letting us know what is going on with the ESV.
As the copyright owners for the ESV, Crosswire has the legal right to deny use of the ESV with our software, as disappointing as that is. Apparently, they only want to give it away for free for use with their own proprietary software.
On the bright side, the World English Bible is free, and always will be. So is the Unlocked Literal Bible. The ESV might have better marketing and more print options, but it isn't any higher quality than either of those two.

Crossway denied me a license to display the ESV on https://eBible.org/study/ as well, but the Lockman Foundation did allow me to display the NASB and Amplified, there, as well as 2 of their Spanish translations. I probably wouldn't have bothered with the NASB if it weren't for the value of the Spanish at the time, and it was as easy to ask for all of them at the same time as to ask for one. Crossway's rationale to me was that they didn't want their proprietary Bible displayed along side so many free Bibles.

So... I have started ignoring the proprietary Bibles for the most part, except where that is the only choice in a given language; and even then, given a choice between working hard on permission to distribute a proprietary Bible translation and working on a free (Public Domain or Creative Commons) Bible translation, I'll do the latter. So far, I haven't run out of work to do on the free Bibles.


On 6/6/19 7:18 AM, Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
>
> Hi Tuomas,
>
> Yes, Crossway has decided to ask us again to stop distributing the ESV.  We deal with new people there all the time and explaining to them how we work and our "family" of applications, and that open source software does not mean open source Bibles, is a challenge.  For the past 10 years, we have tried to get the ESV distribution off of our server onto Crossway's server into their own SWORD remote module installation repository, so as to not require from CrossWire a license from Crossway (and all Crossway
> requires of a license, including a nominal annual fee, renewing the contract, providing regular download stats, etc.).  Crossway has expressed desire to do this in the past, which we hoped would happen soon and hadn't been paying their licensing fees in the hopes that they would take over their own distribution, but they have never follow through with this.  The most recent person in charge of digital licensing has now sent us a bill for $1400 for past licensing dues and is sending mixed signals:
>
> "Crossway does not wish to have you do this [distribute from CrossWire servers] with our content, as we have our own servers.  We also do not want to make your software or the data files that work with our [sic: your?] software available on Crossway's site, as we have our own proprietary API, apps, software, and systems."
>
> ...
>
> "Crossway is not interested in granting you a license to distribute the ESV from your server, nor do we wish to distribute your data files and software from our site."
>
> ...
>
> "If in the days to come you wish to use the ESV again, we would welcome a new proposal from you regarding your desired use."
>
>
> I sent the new distributions rights "VP" all the threads of discussion we've had over the past 18 year with Crossway.  I am sure it was probably too much to be useful, but have quoted relevant sections of those discussions.  It all comes down to the fact that we have 2000+ Bibles available for our tools.  For no other Bible do we have to pay an annual licensing fee or regularly deal with demands from some new person in charge of digital rights to cease distribute of their text when someone from our
> community emails them and asks about their new SWORD frontend having access to the ESV.  It has become exhausting.
>
> I am sad it has come to this,
>
> Troy
>
>
> On 6/4/19 11:44 PM, Tuomas Airaksinen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> And Bible user notified me that popular ESV module has disappeared and I checked that it indeed is not listed in AB module listings at the moment. What happened?
>>
>> -- 
>> T: Tuomas
>>
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