[sword-devel] e-Sword collaboration & other copyright matters

James Gross sword-devel@crosswire.org
Sun, 31 Dec 2000 23:56:15


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<P>To Everyone:</P>
<P>Jonathan, I believe you are right about each of us needing to receive a letter stating that we can distrubute copyrighted materials.&nbsp; We are going through a copyright problem with software on school computers, so I have been delving into some aspects of copyright law.&nbsp; Even if it is not required,&nbsp; I would caution that it is the wisest move if we ask the copyright holders to name each organization on seperate, legally binding letters of agreement.&nbsp; Better safe than sorry.</P>
<P>I agree that we should band together to share resources, this just makes good sense.</P>
<P>Just my two cents.</P>
<P>In Christ's Service,</P>
<P>Jim</P>
<P>&nbsp;</P>
<P><BR><BR>&nbsp;</P></DIV>&gt;From: "Jonathan Hughes" <JHUGHES@CROSSWIRE.ORG><BR>&gt;Reply-To: sword-devel@crosswire.org <BR>&gt;To: <SWORD-DEVEL@CROSSWIRE.ORG><BR>&gt;Subject: Re: [sword-devel] e-Sword collaboration &amp; other copyright matters <BR>&gt;Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 13:16:58 -0800 <BR>&gt; <BR>&gt;Dear Everyone, <BR>&gt; <BR>&gt; Here are my initial thoughts about collaborating with Rick and e-sword: <BR>&gt; <BR>&gt; -I am not sure if legally this would fly, I think that the copyright <BR>&gt;holders would have to grant each organization individually the right to <BR>&gt;distribute their work. I will do more research on this but that is what I <BR>&gt;think will have to happen. <BR>&gt; -I think you may be right Chris it would be harder to get publishers to <BR>&gt;grant us permission if it looks like they are giving away too much, also <BR>&gt;some of our leverage as being a free, non-commercial and OPEN SOURCE <BR>&gt;software package would be taken away. I know Rick's software is also free <BR>&gt;but I guess it just does not have the same effect. <BR>&gt; <BR>&gt; IMHO we should leave the dealings with publishers to each of the <BR>&gt;individual organizations, however, a good show of strength and unity would <BR>&gt;be, if we run into huge problems with some of the copyright holders, we <BR>&gt;could as a free software community send letters of support for each other or <BR>&gt;together to show the copyright holders we are serious and will stand up <BR>&gt;together. Also we can collaborate with ways of contacting copyright holders, <BR>&gt;sharing information about each copyright holder and generally support each <BR>&gt;other with the free flow of information between the two projects. Do my <BR>&gt;arguments make sense? I will do whatever everyone else wants to do, if most <BR>&gt;people think it will be good if we collaborate with Rick then I will extend <BR>&gt;that to him. What are other peoples thoughts? <BR>&gt; <BR>&gt;-Jonathan <BR>&gt;jhughes@crosswire.org <BR>&gt;P.S. What were Rick's reason to not join forces with us in way of developing <BR>&gt;a Windows frontend and using the Sword API? <BR>&gt; <BR><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href="http://explorer.msn.com">http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p></html>