Re: Quran license

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Mohammed Sameer <Uniball gmx net> wrote:
> From Mohammad DAMT @ Sun, 29 Dec 2002 10:38:57 +0700
> 
> > On Sat, Dec 28, 2002 at 08:42:07PM +0000, Mohammed Yousif wrote:
> > > This is why I'm thinking about writing a custom license for
> > > distributing the XML files as I don't seem to be able to find
> > > a suitable license.
> > 
> > maybe we should make a license called, say, ISLAMIC LICENSE that will
> > prevent people to:
> > * make modifications (excluding fixing typos?)
>
> Prevent making modifications without prior written permission from the
> software publisher which must know EXACTLY what kind of modifications are
> going to be done
> 
> > * use the distributed files for "bad" activities
>
> bad is a very large hole. i think we must tighten that alot ?

There are a couple of issues here.

 1. The code will remain open source (at the direction of the authors)
 2. The data itself (XML, audio, etc) is and should be considered pure
    data.  Now dealing with this 'pure data' a number of options are
    available,
    a. You can make is closed (ie. its not source, remember !!)
       Meaning no one will have the right to modify it (from an ethical
       point of view - I don't think we'll have any means of inforcing
       this, yet I'm not a lawyer nor am I upto date on what litigation
       has recently taken place regarding this topic).  Could we encrypt
       it and have a library that would do the decryption ?
    b. You can keep it open source (or open document, etc) and simply
       note the md5 checksum of the files or somehow tag them for
       authenticity (ideas on how to ensure something is what you think
       it is ?)
    c. You can ignore this topic altogether since a great deal of those
       that will want to do ill-harm will find ways and unless we have
       a legal team and excess bandwidth, chasing them is not realistic.
    d. You note in bold/large letters that this application/data must be
       downloaded from "authenticated" source/URLs only

BTW: while on the subject - someone should look into how better to deal
     with the XML/audio since putting them on CVS is not much of an
     option for those with dialup modems (most of the developers living
     in Arab countries - "cvs update" must be a nightmare for them).
     Maybe an FTP option or something (since you can resume a download
     with FTP).

I know I didn't solve anything, but there you have some random thoughts.

Salam.

 - Nadim

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