Re: License Islamic Holy material

["Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya" <meor dot ridzuan at gmail dot com>]

Abdalla,
> > But consider the Quran, what can you possibly do with the Quran
> > that comes with  a license and how will that usage differ from the
> > unlicensed version? In your analogy (which we have trimmed down
> > from the Great Wall to a car to show how a "thing" is being used)
> > there's a difference between the car and its picture, or the wall and
> > its picture. But what will be the difference in usage between the
> > unlicensed and a licensed version of the Quran?

I think it is more appropriate to attach the word "text" after the
Quran. Your question, "But what will be the difference in usage
between the unlicensed and a licensed version of the Quran 'text'? "
Well, quite a number. A license is not just about how you can use, but
also what you can do with it.
Let's assume that we do have a license attached to a text.
Of course, how you would use it is straight forward. You can read,
search, sort etc. Most license will not prohibit that. But what can
you can do with it is a different thing. Most commercial license will
prohibit you from publishing the content without permission. Consider
this, when author publish a book, he has given the rights to a company
to print it. Then another company print the same book, but without a
permission. To me your question is like "how can the 2 book differs,
because the content is the same". Of course, the content is the same,
but it does have it's implication by the law.

>  1. Get someone (an author of a publication of some sort) to
>     donate an electronic copy for open source consumption.
>  2. Get a number of people to actually type-up the material
>     (ie. start from zero).
>  3. We cut-n-paste what is out there (from various websites)
>     and have people validate its content either based on source
>     and/or personal knowledge.

Nadim,
Actually, I was thinking of going with no 2. I think it is quite
possible for someone with enough passion. I'm thinking along this
line. Get a madrassa involve. Let their graduated students work on it
(before they go on and work with someone else). Their teacher can
review their work later. It probably won't cost that much.


> > It wont solve any problem at all. A license will not stop a malicious person
> > from adding, deleting, or modifying the Quran if he or she wants to.

I did not say it will solve all the problem, but it is a start. If you
have all the best tool in the world to protect your work but without a
license, you dont' have any case against the person with the wrong
doing.

Another things to consider for a license. Take the Quran project for
example. If the text were attached with a license that prohibit any
change, will it be illegal for someone to remove the XML code and
distribute it?

Regards.