How Secure are the Texts? about browserbible-3 HOT 3 CLOSED

The short answer: The texts are not secure at all.

Obviously this there are two parts to this:

• If you keen the generator tools and sources off of your public server space then the USFM or whatever source data you have will be safe enough.
• On the other hand the generated files that contain the markup for display are by design fully accessible. Anybody that wanted to scrape a copy of the full text out of that could do so (and if they knew half a thing about web technologies, they could fetch a full copy without tedious copy/paste).

This is by design. The app is made to disseminate texts, not keep them locked up. You cannot do the latter without compromising the former. Any technology that tries to enforce copyright with digital protection measures must by definition compromise the accessibility of that content. The BrowserBible is specifically architected to make the texts accessible to a wide audience and range of devices and technologies, including off-line access. The text is pre-processed and made as easy to render as possible. It is not a good place to start if your goal is DRM like lock-down of content.

On a less technical note, if you are publishing Bible based material please consider talking to the copyright holders and advocating for a more open handed release of their data. Personally I highly recommend giving The Christian Commons a read.

from browserbible-3.

Thanks for the response. My main concern was about the source data. The copyright holder is alright putting the text online in html format (which is separated by chapter, as it is in your app), but just doesn't want easy access to the original source. Like you said, it's easy to grab html.

And yes, I wish all Bible copyright holders held to more open handed approach, but unfortunately it is not the case. But I do what I can within the system to try and get the text easily accessible (in my case, in the Khmer language).

from browserbible-3.

There is no reason for the entire generator directory or the sources it uses to be online at all. Once you pre-process all the sources into the HTML format consumed by the app, the backed does not need any access to that at all. You only need to host the app directory and the content directory in it that has the generated HTML sources.

from browserbible-3.