[Pkg-crosswire-devel] sword-comm-mhc_1.6-1_amd64.changes REJECTED

[Roberto C. Sánchez]

Hi Thorsten,

Any further thoughts or feedback on the points I raised?

Regards,

-Roberto

On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 08:13:56PM -0500, Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:
> Hi Thorsten,
> 
> The Sword modules are created using the process documented here:
> 
> https://crosswire.org/wiki/DevTools:Modules
> 
> The Matthew Henry Commentary upon which the Sword module is based is
> located here:
> 
> http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc.html
> 
> The CCEL text appears to only be available in PDF and TXT formats.  The
> CrossWire Wiki documents a process by which the source text is taken,
> marked up, converted into the Sword module format, and then compressed.
> The compression and module format conversion appear to be reversible.
> However, I imagine that the markup process is done by hand and so that
> is probably considered a creative work.  Given the process described in
> the wiki it seems reasonable to infer that the process begins the Public
> Domain TXT source and not any other format.
> 
> The module page for the Sword Modue itself is: 
> 
> http://crosswire.org/sword/modules/ModInfo.jsp?modName=MHC
> 
> I interpret the "Distribution License: Public Domain" on that page to
> include the text->compressed module conversion process.  It seems to me
> that taking the source in TXT format is explicitly permitted by CCEL and
> that the Sword project then places the original along with its additions
> into the Public Domain as well.
> 
> Would it be sufficient to document in README.source and/or copyright
> more details regarding the process by which the module is created?  If
> so, would what I described above be adequate or would something
> different be necessary?
> 
> I suppose that there might be an argument for creating the package from
> the original text with markup and then have the package build process
> perform the module conversion and compression steps.  However, no other
> Sword module in Debian does this and it appears that the Sword project's
> preferred form of distribution is the compressed module form.
> 
> If you think that it would be better to have the modules build from a
> text-based source instead of just taking the compressed modules directly
> from the Sword project, let me know.  I can discuss with the team and we
> can figure out the appropriate place from which to obtain the sources
> and come up with a plan to convert all the existing Sword module
> packages to be more suitable from a Debian policy perspective.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -Roberto
> 
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 10:00:10PM +0000, Thorsten Alteholz wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Roberto,
> > 
> > according to [1] only the .txt files are in the public domain:
> >  You may use the plain-text version of any public domain book at the CCEL (files ending in .txt) in any way you please, including republishing it.
> >  Other formats may not be copied without permission. You must contact us for permission to republish CCEL works or to use them commercially.
> > 
> > As your package does not contain any .txt file I am not sure that the 
> > license meets the DFSG requirements.
> > 
> > Thanks!
> >  Thorsten
> > 
> > [1] www.ccel.org/about/copyright.html
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ===
> > 
> > Please feel free to respond to this email if you don't understand why
> > your files were rejected, or if you upload new files which address our
> > concerns.
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Roberto C. Sánchez
> 
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-- 
Roberto C. Sánchez