[CS-FSLUG] Mac to Linux: Bible Software

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Timothy Butler <tbutler at ofb.biz> writes:
> That would be nice. Module portability would be awfully nice too. I
> sort of hate to think when one buys a commercial Bible module that one
> is locked into a specific program.

A couple thoughtful references on document/portability, which in turn
contain some more useful references to others' more extensive comments
on content portability:

Do We Need an Open Publishing Standard or What?
http://www.bsreview.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=71

Will Printed Books Eventually Die?
http://www.bsreview.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=73

> I wonder if Karl or someone else could speak to the plausibility of
> writing a Logos or Accordance to SWORD converter?  It seems to me that
> would be permissible for personal use, although maybe it would be an
> issue like DeCSS?

Yes, very like DeCSS.

For a Logos/Libronix converter, it would be a matter of figuring out a
way around the license restriction, which probably (I'm guessing,
educatedly) also doubles as a encryption methodology.  Logos themselves
will never consider offering information on how to get under the hood
that way.  If someone manages that, and a module escapes the license
restriction, the content is available to anyone, and then Libronix would
have to trust their users not to cross the copyright boundary of not
redistributing.  Similar thoughts apply for Accordance though I don't
know what format they use or how they lock resources.  Once there is
unencrypted content to work with...well, I have an inordinate fondness
for sed(1), which is how the bulk of my scripts work, and you haven't
lived until you've seen what I can do with a sed regexp to detect
scripture xrefs syntactically.

Sword has locked resources, too, using a single cipher key, not by a
license assigned to a single person.  If I have the key to a module, I
can give it to anyone, and they can then see/use the module, too.
That's how I obtained the NASB beta module that's due for release back
to Lockman sometime soon -- the guy doing the bulk of the work just
offered the content in a *.zip, then emailed the key to the developers
who need to make sure that such a module doesn't conjure up latent or
unknown bugs in our UIs.  He trusts (correctly) we won't redistribute.

I have long wondered about the extreme and complicated licensing schemes
deployed in Libronix and similar tools.  I can cut&paste with the best
of 'em, so it seems to me that, if I was really motivated, I could
extract the content of any locked or licensed module with my mouse and a
word processor, and in turn I could then convert that result to
something Sword-compatible.  (I just experimented with Libronix, where I
just cut&pasted all of Libronix' KJV Genesis into Word in one shot.  It
even brought along the footnote content, nicely formatted.)  I'm not
that cynical, and I've spent a little time with Bob Pritchett, I
wouldn't want to offend him.

I figure it comes down to trusting the users.  I will show people how to
do what I do with restricted content but I'm consistent in not giving
away the results to be put on any computer I don't personally use.