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Ultimately, anything you can see on screen can be copied and converted
to other useful formats, technically, if not legally. Ease of doing so
may vary greatly with the application. Any Bible study program that is
any good supports text export and copy & paste functions, but you
may have to do it a chapter at a time and add markup manually. (That is
much easier than doing screen captures and running the resulting images
through OCR software.) In the case of Libronix modules, it is probably
a violation of the DMCA to convert whole books. Direct conversion of
the Libronix modules is a possibility, too, but the format of those
modules are protected by trade secret law as well as copyright. (Making
a trade secret known doesn't cancel the effect of the law.) If the text
of a Libronix module happens to be public domain, it is probably also
available in an unencumbered format elsewhere. If I were convinced of the legality of a text conversion project starting with Libronix and going to OSIS, I would probably do so indirectly, going from exported text to a simpler markup like USFM or GBF that has a free converter to OSIS, then, if appropriate, adjust the OSIS to support any features that were not easy to support in the intermediate format, if any. If. That would save a lot of tedium. I LIKE open Bible text formats (like OSIS, USFM, USFX, GBF, ThML, SWORD modules, eSword modules, etc.) for their openness, just like I like open source software and freely-copyable Bibles like the WEB. I mentioned STEP because it was a noble effort at a common, long-lasting Bible text standard, like XSEM and OSIS... one that seems to be fading away, just like XSEM is now and OSIS will. The main difference is that OSIS has some people who are at least attempting to keep it updated by fixing part of its defects and adding features. Patrick Durusau just finished making some edits to the OSIS User's Manual that substantially improved it OSIS. I think that will be available for download within a week or so from the official OSIS web site. If you are using OSIS, I recommend getting it and reading it when it is available. It still has some problems, with examples not matching the text very well, but it finally becomes what I would call usable when properly used. I'm not as strongly opposed to OSIS as I was before the about-to-be-published OSIS User's Manual revision. I still think that it is unfortunate that Chris Little would like to make OSIS the only supported format for The Sword Project, as this will most likely slow development and cause problems. But-- it is an open source project, and he is free to support OSIS as much as he wants, and others are free to continue supporting existing alternatives or add support for other formats-- even if it means branching the project to a new home and a new name. The GPL is wonderful in granting freedom that way. :-) That said, if you think OSIS is a good thing for you to use, go for it. Let OSIS and its alternatives stand or fall on their own merits. My main concern is that the Word of God be published widely and accurately. Michael http://kahunapule.org Greg Hellings wrote:
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