[sword-devel] Legal ?

[Kirt Christensen]

Can the copyright to a particuliar biblical translation be sold?  If so,
then Satan can buy it.  Can the copyright holder really limit who
publicly quotes in verbal or written form from their texts?  Then the
gospel can be silenced or severly limited by its translator or "owner".
This is really interesting and I never thought it possible that the
words could be owned commercially to this extent. 

-----Original Message-----
From: A. Brent Hudson [mailto:revbrent@primeline.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 10:36 AM
To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
Subject: Re: [sword-devel] Legal ?


Since the UBS4/NA27 is an eclectic text I believe its copyright is
easily defensible.  There is no Greek manuscript in existence that
matches the UBS text, it is the result of thousands of hours of
studying manuscript evidence and debating that evidence in committee.
 Once you read the UBS Textual Commentary you get an idea of just how
much work went into forming the UBS4/NA27 text.  

As someone who has paid a tremendous amount of money for my 12 years
of University education in Biblical Studies, I must defend these
scholars' right to protect their textual work.  The fact is, there
are very few people who have the training to do the work of the UBS
committee.  Since the Greek text is the backbone of all NT
translations there would not even be an NIV to copyright if not for
the work of Metzger, Black, Aland and company.  Surely the USB4/NA27
has a defensible copyright.  

Brent