Liz wrote: > Now here's a thought - let's take the Bible - say, the new Testament - OK, > even at latest date the last books of the New Testament are supposed to have > been written about the end of the first century so they are 2000 years old - > obviously over the 50 years since the death of the authors. > > BUT > > I can't quote from the NT here because any quote I give will be a translation > which is owned by the translator or their heirs.
Sorry, but that analogy doesn't hold. Quoting a fragment of the New Testament here is certainly permitted because it falls under the category of "fair usage." If this were not the case, scholars in the humanities would have a really tough time discussing texts! It's hard to imagine people carving tombstones saying "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" and paying royalties to the translators of the King James Version. You would not, however, be permitted to put up a Web site with the entire text of a copyrighted translation. > go back to the original text (if I can find it ... most of the original greek > texts are lost) and retranslate it (after I have learnt new testament greek) > and then quote it. No, they're not lost. The New Testament papyri are numerous and quite well preserved. That's not even taking into consideration the thousands of quotations and references in other ancient translations and in the works of the Church Fathers, which are also important witnesses to the original text. I think that it's time to move this topic to lace-chat, because it's straying into general discussion about copyright and is becoming less lace-related. BTW, if you think lace books are expensive, you should do an Amazon search on my name. It's a good thing I get free copies of my books, because there's no way I'd shell out that kind of money for them! <g> Best wishes, Avital, Arachne moderator, PhD in New Testament and ancient Jewish literature (Harvard University), and former Chief of Publications, Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
