October 2009 • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

Preserving Public Domain resources from End User License Agreements in Proprietary Torah Databases

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady

Categories:

Advocacy

Tags:

digitization, copyright, copyleft, EULA, Davka, DavkaWriter

Often we are asked here at the Open Siddur Project why we cannot simply use the digitized texts of the siddur that are available from Davka Corporation. Our instinct was that Davka only granted permission for individuals to use their digitized Hebrew texts under fair use doctrine. To be certain, we sought to find the the text of Davka Corporation’s End User License Agreement (EULA) and failing to locate this information online, friends of the project provided us with the EULA included with the packaging and software installer for a Davka software product: DavkaWriter Dimensions II. From the language of these license agreements, it is clear that the text Davka is providing is not free for end-users to distribute or to create derivative works. Section 4(a) of the EULA reads: “You may not use the texts in the software to publish materials for sale without express written permission from Davka Corporation. Preparation of these texts has entailed considerable effort and expense. They are not shareware, and should be used by no one other than the purchaser.” . . .

📖 סידור תהילת ה׳ ידבר פי | Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yedaber Pi, by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (2009)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation) and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Categories:

Weekday siddurim

Tags:

English vernacular prayer, neo-lurianic, devotional interpretation, interpretive translation, four worlds, English Translation, Jewish Renewal, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M.

If you are not used to reading Hebrew with comprehension and with the ability to dilate the Hebrew from the literal meaning, or if you cannot read Hebrew and need a resource for daily davvenen, I offer you this set of texts, which I, too, use frequently for myself. I translated the Psalms and the liturgy in the way in which I experience them in my feeling consciousness. This does not offer the ‘pshat’, the literal meaning of the words, but the devotional interpretation that can make it a prayer of the heart. . . .