A topic that has come up with the discussion about Katana for Maemo 5 has been the issue of enabling an open source (and free) Bible reader to read paid (DRM-ed) formats. Its been a sticky issue within the electronic Bible realm for sometime, and I don’t know that the discussion will go away anytime soon, but there are some aspects to this discussion that need to be stated so that all parties have the same starting point to move forward.

What is Copyright?

The first thing is copyright. Copyright is the defined as a:

…form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize “moral rights” of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

In most respects, this makes simple sense to all. Law designed to allow artists to profit from their work without fear of infringement by someone else. When it comes to mobile Bible software, there are several areas where copyright tends to rear its head:

• The coding used to transcode and format the Biblical text
• The Biblical text (per its translators or publishers)
• The code and user interface of the application that reads the Biblical text
• The systems used to develop or support the application or publishers’ copyright

In respect to copyright, its a law. And laws are different for different regions. Some regions will limit a copyright for a certain amount of time to the original creator, whereas other areas might not limit it at all except in certain applications.

And while most of this is pretty simple, the idea of ownership throws all of this into several grayer-than-most areas.

Copyright and Licensing

The problem comes in enforcing copyright in a realm like the Internet where the concept of “regions” tends to get lost very quickly. Because something is attainable, the regional law needs to have a non-regional aspect to it if copyright is going to be skillfully applied. This is where the idea of licensing comes into play. Licensing allows the copyright holder to be compensated for their work, but also for the purveyor of the said work to use that item in a way that best fits them.

We see this in respect to music. When you purchase music (in the US), you are purchasing a license for its fair use. And in many cases, this fair use includes you being able to listen to that purchased music on any personal devices that you own.

Electronic Bibles

The same isn’t exactly the case when it comes to electronic Bibles. Because of publishing rights and regional issues relating to literary works, licensing Biblical content for use across several devices or reader applications isn’t something that’s done from company to company.

This is why there are several Bible reader companies, and many of them do Bible readers for several types of software. Their licence to create and dissemenate only covers the material within their applications, not across it.

Where Ethics Comes In

Therein lies the issue of ethics for the mobile/electronic Bible user. Sure, you can purchase a Bible from “Company X,” but you’d only be able to use it within their application. Because of the limited license (to you), to use that material on another device would mean that Company X would need to develop a container for you to read it.

Even if you are enterprising enough to take Company X’s Bible and use it on Company Y’s application, you still have the problem of licensing. Technologically, its not an issue to do that. Ethically it is. You are circumventing the license in order to gain accessibility. That’s breaking the copyright, and therefore putting the law maker in position to execute justice for the copyright holder.

Solutions???

It would seem though that there are no solutions for issues like this. There are too many devices requiring too much custom code, and then so many versions of the Bible with so many owners of those copyrights. Its not an easy thing to make something available to all and then secure it for those who created it and deserve their compensation for time/resources.

But then again that just may be the problem worth fixing. Right now, companies license Bibles from creators/publishers, not individiual users. If users could also – inexpensively – license content, then maybe that license would have provisions for them to select which devices fall under that licensed use.

Bible software companies would then move into doing things to make their reader applications the selling point, promising compatibility with that licensing scheme, and value-adding whatever else would draw people to them.

I don’t really know what a total solution would look like. But, in light of the many, many, people using mobile and other devices for a Bible, its clear that something different needs to be done so that copyright holders are rightfully compensated, but users don’t have so many hoops to go through just to make sure they can use the materials they’ve created.

In the meantime, don’t break a license just because you can. Follow the laws of your land, and work with those groups who are trying to enable change in a legal and God-affirming means. We all win when things are done in good order.