Posting to the Accordance Exchange

The danger of offering this service to our users is that we may unwittingly become a party to a copyright violation. Naturally, we’re determined to do everything we can to avoid that, and if we’re in doubt about the provenance of an uploaded resource, we simply will not post it to the exchange.

So if you create a great User Bible or User Tool that you want to share with others, you can make sure it gets posted to the Exchange by doing everything you can to verify that it is free of any copyright restrictions.

Of course you are free to post your own work, if you think it will be of value and interest to other users.

In general, resources you find on the internet which are clearly in the public domain and which indicate that they are freely distributable for any purposes are okay to post.

Likewise, texts which say that they are “freely distributable for non-commercial purposes” are probably okay to post, but they may not be. Even though neither you, nor OakTree, will profit from any of the modules posted to the Exchange, some people may balk at the fact that you are distributing their text for use with a commercial Bible program. It’s best in such cases to e-mail the person who developed the e-text and ask their permission to distribute their text in an Accordance-compatible format. When you do, be sure to let them know that you will indicate that their text is distributed with permission and that you will include a link to their website.

Other texts are clearly still under copyright, but the copyright holders have given their permission to distribute those works freely. Remember, just because a copyright holder gave one person or website permission to distribute their text, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they want it made available anywhere else or in any other form. So again, it’s best if you contact the copyright holder and get their permission before you upload it to the exchange.

In general, copyright texts which you have purchased for use with other Bible Software programs should not be exported wholesale and imported into Accordance. You can check the specific license and copyright information for the text, as far as your own use is concerned. We do not support the export of texts from one software format to another as this will often violate the licensing terms, and will also not be formatted and fully featured as intended by the publishers.

All this is to say that we are happy to make this service available to our users, but we simply don’t have time to chase down every etext you upload to make sure it’s okay to make available. If you want other Accordance users to benefit from your development efforts, please help us by obtaining and giving us as clear an indication as possible that your module is okay to distribute. You may wish to modify the wording shown below and send it as your permission request.


INSTRUCTIONS: If you would like to make something available to other Accordance users via this site, please upload it via our web form by Clicking Here. If the file is larger than the allowed limit, email us for custom instructions.


Sample Letter

Dear [source of etext]

I have imported your [Name of text] into Accordance Bible Software as a User module. I would like to post this User module to an Exchange site where other Accordance users could download it. Neither I nor the developers of Accordance will be profiting from this in any way; I just want to share this User module with other users. Do I have your permission to upload my User module of [Name of text] to the Accordance Exchange site (http://www.accordancefiles1.com/exchange/)? I would, of course, acknowledge that the module is offered with your permission and provide a link to your website.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name of User]