[sword-devel] NA27 module question

[Chris]

>
>
>They can also protect the UBS4/NA27 text itself with the copyright. 
>Without a copyright, then anyone else (like the JW's) is free to alter
>the text and publish it and say it is UBS4/NA27.  I don't think any of
>us want that to happen.
>

They wouldn't be able to publish it as NA or UBS because those are 
trademarks of the respective organizations. So that's not an argument.

>While there is a goal of being faithful to the originals, no one 
>claims that they have achieved an inerrant reconstruction.

Actually, Kurt Aland on the committee has intimated that the text may be the original. Perhaps few may agree, but then he's on the committee not me.

>In other words, the
>NA27/UBS4 are not simply copies of 2000 year old public domain texts that
>money grubbing infidels have locked for their filthy gain.


It's not clear to me that copyright law supports a restriction on distribution just because it took a lot of work to obtain the item. I can think of lots of scenarios where it may take enormous work to obtain an old copyrighted item, but that doesn't mean it is protected. Every phrase in the text came from ancient texts.