debian-legal has reviewed this topic before. You can read it in http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2002/05/msg00108.html Some of the links there have rotted, but it seemed clearly not Crown copyright.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version_of_the_Bible Wikipedia asserts that the KJV is still copyrighted in England. I think Wikipedia is incomplete at best. Yet again, it does not seem possible to verify a Wikipedia assertion from evidence cited in its article. The discussion link on the article expresses doubt and many of the people discussing it use "letters patent/copyright" which seems confused to me. It is my present understanding that the royal letters patent control printing, not copyright, which did not exist here when this started. This "orthogonality" or "independence" is mentioned in articles, including some you can find online like http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/conf/dac/en/sterling/sterling.html Crown Copyright in the United Kingdom..., by J.A.L. Sterling. Lionel Elie Mamane cited the 1998 Copyright Act, which surprised me because I've not heard of it. Which country is it for? I haven't yet found anything credibly showing extension of the prerogative to electronic distribution, or more generally to become a Crown copyright. I don't think we generally grant the monarchy new prerogatives these days and "The Crown cannot invent new prerogative powers" (2002-03 Public Admin. Select Comm. Press Notice 19). The act currently in force in England is the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended. If the KJV were covered by Crown Copyright, wouldn't that have expired after 125 years? I think the letters patent and royal prerogative are the problem. So, it's not a problem to *distribute* the KJV in England, as far as I can see, but it seems you're not free to print it here. The same may be true of some other Commonwealth countries, as listed in s.3 and notes of Sterling above. Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ irc.oftc.net/slef Jabber/SIP ask -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]