[b-greek] Re: GNT monoply

From: Patrick Narkinsky (patrick@extremehope.org)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 16:58:00 EDT


On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, Lynn Trapp wrote:

> The key here is that the only thing that a person holds "copyright" to is
> the "arrangement" of the words. The unique manner in which an author puts
> words together is really the only thing that the courts can protect from
> infringement. Thus the unique arrangement of the words of a Greek text are
> clearly "copyrightable".
>

But, in creating this manuscript, the only "arrangement" was selecting
which variant to use. There was (correct me if I'm wrong) not *one*
original phrase. According to the US Copyright office:

        Works consisting entirely of information that is common property
        and containing no original authorship (for example: standard
        calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and
        lists or tables taken from public documents or other common
        sources)

are not eligible for copyright. Every manuscript used in NA and UBS4 were
"public documents". All the "authors" did, in this case, was collate
them. I would certainly admit that most of the ancilliary material is
copyrightable. But I can't see how the document itself is.

Patrick

--
Patrick Narkinsky patrick@extremehope.org

"It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My Hosanna is
born of a furnace of doubt." -- Fyodor Dostoevski


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