GNT monoply

Patrick Narkinsky patrick at extremehope.org
Tue Sep 12 16:58:00 EDT 2000


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 at 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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