Copyright, Licensing, and Mobile Bible Ethics
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.
Labels: Bible, law, software, stewardship
posted by Antoine @ 11/09/2009 10:00:00 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
There was a comment about this over at Talk.Maemo and I'm answering it here as I don't want to divert the topic there:
(Quoted Text: What I understand you to be saying, as it relates to Katana, is that e-Sword, etc. can't legally allow us to use their modules, since they only have a license from the copyright holders of the texts to use the modules inside their application; for us to use them, they would need to renegotiate with the copyright holders.
For those items that are currently under a public use license, past the copyright holder's expiration date, etc., these items can be used freely. Most, if not all of the items from places like Online Bible, Sword/eSword, Bible+, fall under this.
When we start getting into some of the more recent translations/transliterations of Scripture, it is then we have more of the case of limitations with the current license holder. For example, the NIV requires that the company that is selling it with their reader pay a per-user fee back to the copyright/license holder. This is a condition of its use, and therefore limits the NIV's availability outside of those specific reader applications or websites.
As a note, just because you can browse a Bible for free on a website, doesn't mean that there isn't some cost that's being incurred.
Some groups have opened up their licensing models (ESV, NetBible, and a few others). This makes it a good bit easier for these groups to have their wares on several devices, without the usual licensing hiccups. But again, that's not everywhere. A publisher can open their license per region just as easily as per user, and that's where this idea of just having it available has its difficulities.
Hope this helps some.
So the easiest thing to do in my opinion (at least for now) is to stick with the public use licensed bibles offered at crosswire.org etc. They have quite a selection...
That does mean no NIV, which stinks but... there are plenty of other good/better translations out there.
What do you think?
Hi Chris; it would be either to wait for a version like the NIV to become available in the Bible reader application you are using; or use something close to it.
Personally, I find that the ESV is a better reading bible than the NIV for many applications, and so I'd recommend that in lieu of the NIV. But unless you are going to fork out some funds for the version you want, yes, you'd have to go to places such as Crosswire, Sword, etc. in order to find something else.
Thanks so much for this. How do I find out about licensing for example for "The Message" and NAS. I'm wondering how likely these versions might become available.
Greetings George and thanks for visiting. Licensing Bibles is usually done by larger bodies as the price is usually not reasonable for individuals. What ends up happening on our end is that we pay for part of that license when we purchase a print or electronic Bible. That license enables us to read/use that content in a manner that follows the laws that have been setup for the material.
If you are looking to use specific Bible versions for an electronic Bible, its best to speak with the developer of the software, and along with them engage communication with the publisher that holds the rights. In some cases, that publisher will work with the developer(s) to make that version available - to which you would pay the developer for their work and the license to read/use it.
Hi Antoine, thanks for the quick response. Allow me to be more precise. Are "The Message" and "NAS" also as restrictive as NIV. You seem to single out NIV but I'm suspecting that the others are just as restrictive. In case they are, I am wondering if the others are friendlier to "fair use" if I have already purchased a version (BibleReader on Olive Tree) already.
Yes, both of these versions are similar in terms of their licenses.
With most Bible software applications - such as Olive Tree's - you would be able to move to another device (say from a BlackBerry to iPhone) and simply have the license transferred to the new device. Fair use does not apply in the respect that if you purchased it for the BlackBerry and were using the BlackBerry and the iPhone together that you'd be able to purchase once and use everywhere. That's one of the issues with digital publishing as a whole that really needs to be worked out. It might happen, but the hurdles are legal and economic, not technical (as far as I've been able to discern).
Fair use is typically a USAmerican concept and is not usually as well endowed in other regions. That being said, the Internet has had a way of helping law catch up to progress.
Hope that helps to clarify this some more you. Feel free to continue to ask questions, this is a pretty important topic to understand.
I guess when I invoke fair use, I mean an application not designed by the original software manufacturer, for example if Rapier one day supports .pdb files.
What is interesting is the EULA from Olive Tree's website
http://www.olivetree.com/help/terms.php
Two areas of note:
Section 1: ... You MAY NOT modify, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reverse engineer any part or component of the BibleReader or Desktop Assistant, or any of the database files (.pdb) that are used with these applications ...
Section 2a: ... You MAY use ONE copy of the purchased software on a single computer. You MAY make ONE copy of the purchased software for archival purposes....
What this tells me is that while I can move between cellphones, I can not use two cellphones at once.
The other is that if someone was to use the .pdb file they would not be able to convert it to another format. In the case of Rapier, it would have to know how to read .pdb files which I do not believe it can today.
I'm just trying to understand my options since there is no commercial version available for the N900 yet
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