03 Isn't it dangerous not to copyright the WEB (World English Bible)?
Description
This article is from the World English Bible Translation FAQ, by Michael Paul Johnson mpj@ebible.org with numerous contributions by others.
03 Isn't it dangerous not to copyright the WEB (World English Bible)?
No. Copyright protection is intended to protect the income of the
copyright holder's sales of a work, but we are planning to GIVE AWAY the
right to make copies of this version of the Holy Bible to anyone who
wants it, so we have nothing to lose that way. There is some argument
for copyrighting a Bible translation just to retain some legal control
against some evil, cultic revision of a translation. The God's Living
Word translations of John's Gospel and John's letters are copyrighted
only for this reason, for example, even though blanket permission to
make unlimited copies of that translation is published with them. This
legal leverage is so much weaker than God's protection of His own Word
that it is of questionable value. (See Revelation 22:18-19.) The only
other major concern is that somebody might later claim a copyright on
the WEB and remove it from the Public Domain. Because there is a timely
and public declaration of the Public Domain status of the WEB by those
who are working on it, that would not work, and they would not be able
to defend such a bogus copyright claim.
Continue to:
My Books
