Question was about sharing software.

I have been asked this question before and thus spent time reviewing the license/copyright agreements that come with many of the CDs my company recommends and sells.

It is PERFECTLY LEGAL to transfer ownership of most CE software from one church to another provided that they are completely transfering the material, and not keeping a backup copy or allowing material from a CD to remain on a computer. I have encouraged church resource centers to have software for loan and work with many that do just that.

The idea of reselling your CE resources makes good sense, provided you are sure you won't need them again. Personally, I've taught with the Paul CD three times in four years, Daniel twice, Birth of Jesus twice, Life of Jesus at least four times, Moses twice and Ruth/Sam/Jonah twice.

Many programs are very reuseable, such as Life of Christ, others are less reuseable and thus less appealing as a purchase if all you plan to use them in is your class. But why not loan then into your homes?

The largest reported hurdle (re: reselling/loaning) seems to be the mechanics of lending/borrowing/reselling. Setting a price, getting paid, getting it back if loaned, getting it back in working condition (CDs are unfortunately easy to damage) are often not worth the effort to harried staff or busy volunteers. I've heard of several churches and regional groups of Rotation churches which have tried to circulate "media boxes" that also included videotapes, etc. The management hassles, missing or incomplete pieces were their downfall. A group of Methodist churches tried this in Minneapolis with mixed results --and most of their materials were bought by a grant!

The other hurdle seems to be incentive. Most computer labs are relatively small, only two or three computers. The true dollar impact of having 3 copies of Daniel hanging around being only $45, they are rather disinclined to worry about trading/reselling.

The cost of software (not to mention hardware) IS DEFINITELY an impediment to its widespread use in Christian education. And yet, CE software is hardly inflated in price considering the enormous expense of making interactive software (which I can personally attest to) and the very small market conditions which currently exist. The Daniel CD you mention cost in excess of $50,000 to make and never sold more than 2000 units a year in its three year run.

We based our own Good Samaritan CD price on this kind of market reality. Prior to making it, we asked dozens of church educators whether or not they'd like to have IN-DEPTH CDS on key stories of the Bible, or CDs that cover MANY stories, but with less multimedia depth. Overwhelming they asked for IN-DEPTH and higher quality multimedia. A CD-ROM only holds 650 megabytes worth of data. It's all but impossible to make ONE CD cover many stories and give each high quality interactive content.

My personal feeling is that lending and reselling is a good idea --and that as the number of churches buying software increases, the cost per CD will decrease. The Daniel CD you mention originally sold for $30, then $25 and is now only $15. Indeed, were our Good Samaritan CD produced in 1996, it would have retailed for about $45, not the current $27 price. So I think we're headed in the right direction.

Still....computing in CE is not for the understaffed or underbudgeted --something I've been consistently saying for many years.

I regularly help church computer labs think through their software purchases. I encourage churches to think carefully about how their lab sizes will impact software purchases. Perhaps someday we might even be in the financial position of creating our own lending library at Sunday School Software Inc. I know that many of us want more choices and better CE software. That takes serious money. So unless one of you wants to underwrite our operation....

<>< Neil MacQueen

[This message was edited by Exchange Gardener on August 09, 2003 at 08:42 PM.]