Try sending something like this... Currently the following modules of those I have downloaded cannot be accessed by anyone without an internet connection, as Crosswire is the only distributor. There are probably quite a few others.
AB ALT EMTV ESV GodsWord HunUj ISV DBD Is there any possibility of getting a license for these for non-commercial or personal use, without permitting format shifting? At our church, we have a free CD containing SWORD resources, among other things. We give these out for free, and some people don't have access to the internet. These resources cannot reach them without relicensing. This could be a greater problem in some parts of the world than here in Australia, but the requirements as stated restrict the use and freedom of use of the word of God, which I consider important. I haven't taken part in any licensing negotiations, but it seems to me logically that granting the user permission to use the module and distribute it for personal use only does not really add any important additional freedom from granting them permission to use the module if and only if they downloaded it from Crosswire, so long as the license is kept (and if they won't keep the one, it is unlikely that they will keep the other). As given, these kinds of licenses breaks one of the principles of free software. While I don't really care if the modules are non-free in the Debian sense, what the current system means is that if Crosswire disappears for whatever reason then we will still have all the software (as the GPL requires), but we will no longer have permission to distribute some of the modules (including the ESV, which IMHO is one of the more important modules - it would certainly have to be in the top three English ones for usefulness). If the copyright owners will really not agree to personal use then the current situation is better than nothing, but I really can't see that distribution for personal use adds any major concession that hurts the copyright owners, while it significantly increase the ability to distribute for users of the software, thus increasing the accessibility of the gospel. Again, I consider that the most important thing about this project is to make the word of God available to all users, so I would prefer module licenses that reflect the freeness of the software (rather than free software with $20 Bibles, as is the case with some). As Christians, we must keep the copyright laws, and so if these are the best licensing terms you can get we must stick with them. However, I still have a rooted objection to the idea of men holding a copyright or ownership on the word of God, and using that to limit the people who will be allowed to use God's word, or to use it so that they can make unreasonable amounts of money from the word of God (somewhat off-topic). Jon _______________________________________________ sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel@crosswire.org http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
