This article is from the World English Bible Translation FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
That is a good question. There are more than 40 English translations of
the Holy Bible. Unfortunately, all of them are either (1) archaic (like
the KJV and ASV of 1901), or (2) covered by copyright restrictions that
prevent unrestricted free posting on the internet or other media (like
the NIV and NASB). The Bible in Basic English (BBE) was in the Public
Domain in the USA (but not all countries) for a while, but its
copyrighted status was restored by GATT. (The BBE used a rather
restricted subset of English, anyway, limiting its accuracy and
readability.) In other words, there is NO OTHER complete translation of
the Holy Bible in normal Modern English that can be freely copied
(except for some limited "fair use") without payment of royalties
and/or publisher permission. This is the vacuum that the World English
Bible is filling.
 
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