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An e-Sword Magazine, what do you think?


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#11 jonathon

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 01:07 PM

You would not need anyone's approval to start a commercial magazine for esword.


e-Sword is a registered trademark:
  • Rick has attempted to file lawsuits based on trademark and copyright infringement, for e-Sword related things^1;
  • He has expressed disapproval of third parties selling resources for e-Sword;
  • He has indicated that he won't tolerate the monetization of e-Sword;
How risk adverse are you?


A third party seminary graduate runs a company that makes and sells unofficial Logos training materials without paying Logos (not talking about Mike Morris).


There are a couple of third parties that provide Logos training. So long as they don't claim to be official Logos training people, or call their program "Camp Logos", or anything that could be construed as "Camp Logos", or generate complaints to either Bob nor Mike Morris, nobody at Logos will be concerned about their activities.

Rick, OTOH, has a very different approach, and philosophy about Biblical software. One that is not as tolerant about "competing" non-gratis training.

^1. These lawsuits did not go to trial due to lack of jurisdiction, defendant was unable to be served, or the lawsuit was filed too late.

jonathon

#12 SpreadTheWord

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 01:25 PM

A magazine about esword would not be trademark or copyright infringement anymore than a magazine about Microsoft Windows would be. Or a blog about Photoshop. Or a magazine about Macintosh. Or a blog about Photoshop. You cant control what books or magazines others write about your product (or real estate or service, etc) unless the content is libelous, malicious, intended to harass, confusion on the content's origin (ex: trademark), etc.

Logos was just one out of a million examples i could use. It doesn't matter if they are concerned or not, they cannot legally stop it anymore than Microsoft can stop a magazine about Windows.

#13 LarryG

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 02:39 PM

Logos was just one out of a million examples i could use. It doesn't matter if they are concerned or not, they cannot legally stop it anymore than Microsoft can stop a magazine about Windows.


Thank you, well stated!

APsit190 My thoughts are you should just do whatever God has put upon your heart to do and let the fruit of your intent determine it's veracity and wholesomeness. There is a reason David, a man after God's own heart, loved Sauls son - 1 Samuel 14:6 - "...it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few."

According to Josh, THIS is the perspective of BibleSupport.com:

Does this website speak for e-Sword or Rick Meyers?
No, BibleSupport.com is not affiliated with the official e-Sword software. No one speaks for Rick Meyers or for e-Sword except Rick Meyers. If anyone implies or insinuates they are speaking on behalf of Rick Meyers on this website, understand they are merely rendering their opinion.

#14 Josh Bond

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 03:24 PM

Well I'm not sure anyone here was saying they speak for Rick. But I'm glad Larry brought it up because I did feel that statement was important enough to place it in the About Us section. I would hate for someone to be "rubbed the wrong way" here, and then think we are e-Sword. We're not and that's why I wrote that text.

As far as I know, anyone is free to write about any software package they choose, whether it's a blog, magazine, book, you tube video, etc.

I'd like to point out that this is a "hypothetical" discussion because the original poster concluded he would not start a commercial magazine. For economic reasons, I agree, as I do not believe enough people would pay to support a commercial magazine. Even Logos, with their huge user base and usage in seminaries everywhere, does not have the userbase for anything more frequent than a bi-monthly publication.

I do find Logos' Bible Study magazine very interesting. My mom bought it for me last Christmas. I don't think I've found an article yet that you could not use with free Bible study software, or even with printed bible tools. It does not "push" Logos at all (that I've noticed), but I do see advertisements for Logos, the NIV, various Christian organizations, ministries, publishers, other software makers who do not directly complete, and so forth.

#15 APsit190

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 03:52 PM

All,
Before I do anything about this magazine idea is to email Rick about it and get his thoughts on it. My reason is that I want his involvement as an article writer. After all he is the author of the program.

Moreover, this magazine will be an unofficial e-Sword magazine. That is all it can be, and nothing more! All the articles in it, both informative and instructive, will come from the end user. Hints, tips, and tricks will come from the end user as to what they discovered in their usage of e-Sword.

As for the name of the magazine, I haven't even thought of one, and the fact is I don't know what to name it.

Don't get me wrong, fact is I would like to see an official e-Sword publication, and I would really love to be involved in something like that. Beats doing an unofficial one.

I am strongly biased toward e-Sword and it is the only Bible software I use. I really love this program because of its simplicity and ease of use, and the end user support it has. And this end-user support comes in more ways than one. I haven't seen that kind of support, and the extent to which it goes with any other Bible software. I actually stumbled on e-Sword as a result of simply looking for a freeware Bible program. Of all the other ones I've found and tried, the only thing they had with it was a King James Bible and Matthew Henry's Commentary... any extras you had to pay for.

My adventure with e-Sword began in 2005. Before that I've tried Theophilus, some Bible program that came on a freeware CD, and a few others. They were pretty gutless and cut-down versions of the premium Bible program. But e-Sword was totally different. You got the real thing, fully functional with a heap of added resources and modules from Rick Meyers' Website for zip. You couldn't ask for anything more than that.

OK, Its when a bloke like Rick goes that extent for ya on the smell of an oily rag (not having much in his back pocket, and basically broke), you really gotta give it to him. My contributions to e-Sword has never been monetary as I don't have it, but to copy what Rick has done, and that is to give it to people without asking for a dime. It costs me a few hundred Dollars a year to do the CDs and give them away. I had some people wanting to give money to me, but I said no to them.

So, coming back to this magazine thingy (idea). This is really something I can do (not having a clue as to how to do it) as a contribution to the the e-Sword community. Blokes like Josh, Jonathon, Larry, and countless others who give their time to a bloke who they hardly or don't know have to be complete loons or that they believe that God is in this. My thinking is, they, like me, believe God is in this. Why else commit time and resources into just a mere Bible program (of which there are hundreds of others) and a person if God isn't in it... You gotta be crazy. And its the same thing with this magazine idea.

Blessings,
Stephen (Php 1:21).
X (formerly Twitter)

 


#16 RickB

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 04:41 PM

Well said Stephen, I have several Bible software on my laptop and PC, most of them are fully loaded, I am disabled and spend many hours at study of the Bible. I am most comfortable with E-sword. I have had it since 2006 and watched it grow into one of the best. I was with the other site, though i had my troubles there. I must say that this site is head and shoulders above the other, nuff said. I enjoy the tips and help here as I am not technical at all. I would love a magazine that could go even deeper.
Thanks Josh for making a difference, as well as all the staff that contribute
here.
May God continue to richly bless you all, and Stephen may he give you the wisdom in your endeavor
RickB

#17 marbryan

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Posted 18 September 2011 - 06:30 PM

yep! Would be great.

#18 jonathon

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Posted 19 September 2011 - 12:07 PM

A magazine about esword would not be trademark or copyright infringement any more than a magazine about Microsoft Windows would be.


You do realize that Microsoft has WON lawsuits (as in collected court costs, attorney fees, and damages) it filed against individuals and organizations that wrote articles about Windows that it didn't pre-approve, don't you?

How risk adverse are you?

i) Every publisher that publishes a magazine, or article about somebody else's intellectual property walks a line between the wishes of the owner of the intellectual property, physically objective data, journalistic integrity, and what the law allows. Intellectual property owners can, and do make things awkward, for publishers that distribute content they don't like. (A magazine is in trouble, when marketing and legalman have more influence in the content, vocabulary, diction, and grammar, of the magazine, than the managing editor has.);

ii) Derivative copyright;

iii) My recommendation was, and remains to consult with Rick. Work something out with him;

iv) If the intent is to blind-side the organization that develops the Biblical software, then Costas Stergiou, The MySword Group, The Sword Project or even Tim Morton would probably have a more favourable response, than Rick would have. (My review of Tim's program hasn't changed.);

jonathon

#19 pfpeller

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Posted 19 September 2011 - 01:24 PM

Jonathan, do you have a link to your review of Tim's program. I am curious. Thanks.

#20 SpreadTheWord

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Posted 19 September 2011 - 01:56 PM

Under your view, dos for dummies would be illegal if Microsoft didnt approve. Gmat and Lsat prep courses would be illegal since the author does not own the rihgts to the placement tests. A technical magazine could not write a bad review of a iphone if apple did not approve. New York times could not write a bad review of a restaurant if the restaurant didnt approve. Video professor would be illegal without every software makers permission. A photoshop blog would be illegal without Adobes consent. All blogs, magazines, books that talk about a product, service, person, or real estate would be illegal if the owner did not approve. Thats just silly and if it were true first amendment wouldnt mean anything. Trademarks give marketing control and copyrights give distribution control...but neither give media control.

The owner of the Dummies books could write esword for dummies tomorrow without anyones approval and there is no legal way to stop them. I feel you try to control the esword community with legalistic "cant do's" and you attempt to leave people with the impression that you somehow speak for esword. This needs to start being challenged like bh did on the tooltipping software / EULA message posts. No disrespect intended in any way this is just my impression after reading this message board.

p.s. Many companies have won lawsuits about posting of their copyright source code...won piracy claims that the text was just a invitation to offer/link to pirated downloads...won claims when someone wrote words they knew were not true at the time they wrote them... won default judgments where the other side did not reply...won cases where whole copyrighted publications were quoted without approval. Microsoft has not won on the only basis that it did not approve material before publication by an unconnected, uncontracted third party without another law violation like libel, malicious intent, publishing copyrighted material, confusion on the origin of the work, etc or because someone violated a contract with microsoft.



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