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Stephen,<br>
<br>
I have the best hope and will join you in prayer that He will see
this change.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, let me share with you that because it is so easy to get
pirated materials there, there is little if no awareness of the
alternatives, and no real interest to change.<br>
People, including believers, do not see piracy as a sin, which is
exactly part of the Scheme to keep them bound in sin - as Bill Gates
has pointed out, piracy makes people dependent on Microsoft, and all
that remains is to "figure out how to charge them someday"<br>
<br>
I personally find myself in a bind. Scripture (1 C 8, 1 Co 10)
makes me feel I am intruding in a matter of personal conscience.
Yet, I do point out the advantages of enjoying a virus-free life :-)<br>
<br>
Buying a copy also raises a neat little point in the consciousness
of people. People do "pay" for the pirated software (as they would
be asked to pay for legal one) as such they feel they are "clean".
They paid, they own it, they're good. If there was some piracy
involved, it is not they...<br>
<br>
OTOH, my soul smarts on the matter of people who will happily
register their copyright on God's word. I know and agree that
copyrights - reasonable ones, maybe 12 years - have a good reason to
exist, but all of God's word, or materials directly using God's word
are IM upset opinion, of the highest order Public Domain, actually
above it if there ever was such a classification as Creation Domain.<br>
<br>
My conversation with the Bible Union in Bolivia, regarding their
Aymara translation of the Bible, was totally unfruitful. The
current version is now Public Domain in Bolivia (50 years after
publication), and thus I shouldn't care, except that they are
finally doing a revision...<br>
<br>
Of course I boycott Zondervan, and I was happy of visiting a church
recently where (I was told later it was merely a coincidence)
several songs during worship where indicated in the screen as
"public domain". I am so weak that in my own church, every time the
projector reminds me that such and such song which copies words from
the Bible doesn't belong to God and us but actually is owned and we
are paying some mayor entertainment company more known for its
strong support of sensual lifestyle choices, it really messes up a
chance to think about that song helping me focus in healing my soul
or anything worthy.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile a several-year campaign to recuperate previous
translations held by SIL with many other Bolivian Native languages
has not got any results either. While their calls for more money for
translations arrive to my mailbox quite often, those already
existing materials, maybe the last known copy, sit uncopied,
undistributed and hopefully at least protected in some storage. Some
of those are likely to become not only obsolete but downright
useless as time passes, the corresponding tribes dying off without
the benefit of clergy, to use the idiom in its true sense :-(<br>
<br>
A multi year effort by some Avant missionaries to transfer
reel-to-reel tapes of jungle languages was completed several years
ago, them leaving several CD copies in different locations. None of
those can be retrieved now, several of them likely lost - who knows,
maybe all of them - bless their heart, they retired to Canada
without keeping a copy themselves...<br>
<br>
Have you ever responded to an appeal to help translation of
Scripture? be aware that most likely those efforts will be "owned"
later by someone, or lost and not reach those they were meant for -
I know of extremely few Scripture materials that are both recent and
Free, and just merely rescuing those in storage and making them
available would already maybe make an impact at extremely small
additional cost - after all, their preparation has already many
times been paid for.<br>
<br>
BTW, anything published pre 1961 is now totally legal to copy in
Bolivia and those countries that were not forced yet to follow the
example of the US to bow to Hollywood. Thus any such initiative
regarding the very popular Reina Valera 1960 can legally be
distributed from a server in Bolivia - that might be simpler that
getting the copyright holders to understand that freely you have
received and freely you should give... (and in many case not even
free - many of them owe their whole livelihoods to donations, they
didn't get the stuff simply for free, they were and are <i>paid</i>
to "own" the stuff - absurd, innit?)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 04/14/2011 12:24 AM, sjm wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4DA68511.5040206@gmail.com" type="cite">I just
finished a newsletter to send out to our prayer and support team
and thought I'd share a portion of it here. (If you'd like to see
the whole thing you can see it here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://eepurl.com/dnoeX">http://eepurl.com/dnoeX</a>
<br>
<br>
Your Help Needed
<br>
<br>
One thing that has been an interest of Steve's is to be able to
get Bible study tools in the hands of those that may not have the
means to get them (legally, at least).
<br>
<br>
The background is that in Latin America it is very easy to get
pirated copies of software and programs for a computer. If the
software was bought legally it would be out of their reach
financially. So, Steve has been advocating alternatives, when the
opportunity comes up, that are legally within the reach of the
common Latin American person.
<br>
<br>
One of the tools that could help is The Sword Project
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp">http://crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp</a>). The one thing that is
lacking is that the owners of the copyrights for the more up to
date translations in English and Spanish have not given permission
to have their translations published for use with The Sword
Project. See this link:
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/Copyright#Contacting_Copyright_Holders">http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/Copyright#Contacting_Copyright_Holders</a>
<br>
<br>
Would you be willing to pray for this effort and even write or
call the copyright holders so they might give permission to The
Sword Project to publish their modules?
<br>
<br>
You can use my name and email address if you would like:
<br>
<br>
Stephen J. McCracken
<br>
<br>
Please let me know how it goes if you decide to pray or to help
out in other ways!
<br>
<br>
---------
<br>
<br>
To quote a little from the Crosswire Wiki:
<br>
<br>
Guidelines to Follow in Corresponding with the Copyright Holders
<br>
<br>
* Be friendly (remember you are a Christian, act like one)
<br>
* Explain you use BibleTime, Xiphos, or The SWORD Program for
Windows. These programs use SWORD modules. Tell them you wish to
be able to use their work with that program. Emphasize that each
of these projects are free software (Open Source), non-commercial
and receive NO payment whatsoever.
<br>
* Explain you would like to see them support The SWORD Project
by either granting The CrossWire Bible Society the right to freely
distribute their work or setup up a way to pay a small fee to be
able to use their work. Make sure you indicate you would be
willing to pay the small fee to be able to use their work.
<br>
<br>
---------
<br>
<br>
Translations and Their Copyright Holders
<br>
The American Bible Society/United Bible Societies
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.americanbible.org/about/contact">http://www.americanbible.org/about/contact</a>
<br>
<br>
* Reina Valera - 1960 (RV60)
<br>
* Reina Valera - 1995 (RV95)
<br>
* Reina Valera Contemporánea (RVC)
<br>
* Dios Habla Hoy (DHH)
<br>
* Traducción en Lenguaje Actual (TLA)
<br>
* Contemporary English Version (CEV)
<br>
* Good News Translation (GNT)
<br>
<br>
Baker Publishing Group
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&type=InfoRequest&nm=Form&mod=Information+Request&level=1&id=F4460FB2FD974619A2F83CD716EC9492">http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&type=InfoRequest&nm=Form&mod=Information+Request&level=1&id=F4460FB2FD974619A2F83CD716EC9492</a>
<br>
<br>
* God's Word Translation (GW)
<br>
<br>
Biblica (formerly International Bible Society)
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.biblica.com/contact-us/">http://www.biblica.com/contact-us/</a>
<br>
<br>
* Nueva Versión Internaccional (NVI)
<br>
* Castilian (CST)
<br>
* New International Version (NIV)
<br>
* New International Readers Version (NIrV)
<br>
* Today's New International Version (TNIV)
<br>
<br>
Holman Bible Publishers
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/connect/contact.asp">http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/connect/contact.asp</a>
<br>
<br>
* Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
<br>
<br>
The Lockman Foundation
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lockman.org/mail/index.php">http://www.lockman.org/mail/index.php</a>
<br>
<br>
* La Biblia de las Américas (LBLA)
<br>
* Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy (NBLH)
<br>
* New American Standard Bible (NASB)
<br>
* The Amplified Bible (AMP)
<br>
<br>
Thomas Nelson Publishers
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/dept.asp?dept_id=1117900&category=Contact-Us">http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/dept.asp?dept_id=1117900&category=Contact-Us</a>
<br>
<br>
* Nueva Biblia al Dia (NBD)
<br>
* New Century Version (NCV)
<br>
* New King James Version (NKJV)
<br>
<br>
Tyndale House Foundation
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.tyndale.com/00_Home/contact.php?lang=eng">http://www.tyndale.com/00_Home/contact.php?lang=eng</a>
<br>
<br>
* Nueva Traducción Viviente (NTV)
<br>
* New Living Translation (NLT)
<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cs.uninetsolutions.com">http://cs.uninetsolutions.com</a>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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