At 12:06 AM 1/6/2003 -0500, David's Mailing List and Spam Receiver wrote:
If they produced these files themselves then that may be useful information if you get and use the files from their own server. If they didn't produce these files or you get them from some other source it is less certain what you actually have. There are files out there that claim to be from Bible Foundation, but BF never had them. And then there is Vine's. BF took that file down because it had copyright restored, but you can download that file from many places that claim it is still PD.... The hebrew dictionay has this note at the bottom, "The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon is Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon; this is keyed to the "Theological Word Book of the Old Testament." These files are considered public domain"Food for thought.
If you want to be sure about the state of a work, go to the source, and then, verify it against a printed PD version. It would be good if The SWORD Project could have all the modules verified as true to their PD origins by working with something like CCEL. Put the text up and let people proofread it. Even better if you start with new scans and proofread them. This way verified works can be produced that we know had nothing to do with other electronic versions, even if what is produced is 100% the same. This will allow more modules to be distributed without having to have special agreements so not to offend "good guys" that believe they need to give permission and get credit.
Even if you have talked to the source of an electronic version and all is cool with that source, but you copy the work of a CD that came from third party, that party may, rightly or wrongly, take issue with you taking it from their CD. They may call it stealing. Better to skip the other party.
Jerry
