The Bible and Copyrights

Someone left the following comment on the post, "God Wrote the book."

God wrote it... man has tried to mess it up, copyright it and profit from it over the centuries.

Many times people use the copyright argument to try to prove or discredit a translation. We should always strive to find truth and not to simply try to prove something. Consider the following information:

The following was posted at this link:

Copyright

Fallacy #1 - The King James Version is not now and never has been copyrighted.

"I believe the King James Bible is the work of God and not of man due to the fact that it is not now and never has been copyrighted."

I hear this "defense" of our Authorized Version of the Bible quite often, and even heard a testimony of this being the deciding factor in a man being convinced of the superiority of the King James Version at last year's Dean Burgon Society meeting in Grayling, Michigan.

Although I rejoice with the man giving the testimony, in that he has arrived at a position of knowing which Bible is God's preserved word in English, I must say I would be more comfortable if he had discovered God's Truth via a more defensible pathway.

The facts are, of course, somewhat different from the above quoted statement. While it is true that the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures has never been copyrighted in the United States, it is not true that the Authorized Version has never been copyrighted at all.

Upon publication of the Authorized Version in 1611, King James I of England assigned to that great work a "Cum Privilegio" (Latin: with privilege). The Cum Privilegio was issued in the form of a "Patent" which is very much like our copyright. However, the King realized that patent (copyright) law stated that a patent or copyright was only good for the life of the person holding the copyright, plus 50 years, so, instead of placing the patent in his name, or the names of the translation committee members, he issued the patent in the name of the Crown (a "Royal Letters Patent in Perpetuity"). In this way, he was able to secure the patent for the duration of the British Crown, plus 50 years. This means that it will never come into the public domain unless HM the Queen or one of her successors releases the patent.

According to British law, in England, the printing of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible (KJV) is the monopoly of the Royal Printer, by virtue of a patent first granted to Christopher Barker in 1577. Only the University Presses of Cambridge and Oxford are permitted by royal charter to override this monopoly; one other publisher, Scottish, is an accepted printer of these materials. (By its royal charter of 1534, the University of Cambridge had acquired the perpetual right to appoint three printers who could print "all manner of books."

The right preexisted Barker's patent, and was taken to cover Bibles, so Cambridge printed a Geneva Bible in 1591 and its first KJV in 1629. Out of fairness Oxford acquired a similar charter in 1636, and in the 1670s printed Bibles.)

So the first A.V. Bibles published in England were the work of the Royal Printer (in the early 17th century, that would have been Robert Barker, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, according to the title page of the 1611 edition of the A.V.).

Although the universities (Oxford and Cambridge) always claimed the right to print the Bible, Cambridge had not exercised that right since the year 1589; but in 1628 a duodecimo New Testament was published at Cambridge, by the printers to the University, and the following year Thomas and John Buck issued the first complete Cambridge Bible. The University of Oxford did not begin to print Bibles until the year 1675, when the first was issued in quarto size; the spelling having been revised by Dr. John Fell, Dean of Oxford.

The only exception to the above was a small octavo Testament issued at Edinburgh, by the Heirs of Hart, in 1628 (the Anfro Hart whose "Breeches" Bible was so highly esteemed). This is the first Testament printed in Scotland of the King James Version, and it was the Heirs of Hart who were included in the Royal Patent of 1577, as noted above.

Today, all Bibles printed in England are printed by the university presses of either Oxford or Cambridge.

However, the good King did not take into account that one day his nation would enter into an agreement with the other major powers of the world whereby they would honor each other's laws regarding copyright and patents. Today, we have international copyright laws that are honored by all signatory nations. Unfortunately for the King and his descendants, but fortunate for us, the "Crown Patent" did not fall within the agreed upon guidelines for International Copyright (due to the patent being in the name of the Crown instead of in the name of an individual), so the Authorized Version of the English Bible was never included in the international agreement. Therefore, the Authorized Version is not copyrighted in the United States, nor any other country, except the British Empire, or Commonwealth Nations which have agreed to abide by the patent laws of Great Britain. However, the patent is still in force in Great Britain, and all Authorized Version Bibles printed in Great Britain are printed under the patent agreements with Cambridge and Oxford.

The argument has often been made by able defenders of the King James Bible that the above is not true for there were many Bibles printed by those not having a license under the "Cum Privilegio." However well intentioned these good people may be, it must be pointed out that none of the Bibles in question (with one exception) were printed in the British Empire.

In the year 1642, a folio edition of the King James Version was printed at Amsterdam by "Joost Broersz, dwelling in the Pijlsteegh, in the Druckerije." The notes of the King James Bible are omitted, and the arguments and annotations of the "Breeches" Bible are inserted in their place. Bibles with the KJV text but with Geneva notes were printed in Holland in 1642, 1672, 1683, 1708, 1715 and in England in 1649. It must be noted that the English printing of 1649 was done during the English Civil War (1642-1653, which resulted in the arrest of Charles I in 1647, and his beheading January 30, 1649, and the exile of the Royal Heir, Charles II, to Holland). It was during this period of civil unrest, when the consensus of opinion was that the Royal family had no rights or privileges, and there was no King in England, that the Royal Patent was ignored.

If the fact that the King James Bible is not under copyright in the US indicates that it is the word of God and not the words of men, as the newer versions are indicated to be by virtue of their copyright, does that also mean, as the KJV is under copyright in England, that it is not the word of God in that country? To me, the copyright argument does not prove anything other than that currently if you want to print the NIV you have to pay to do so, but you do not have to receive anyone's permission to print the KJV in this country. However, one hundred years from now (or even 75 years from now) the copyright on the NIV will cease and anyone can print it without permission or payment. Will the NIV be a better or more accurate version in 50 or 75 years when its copyright expires?

I don't think so. The argument dealing with copyright is weak at best, and deceitful at worst. There are so many good reasons to believe in the superiority of the King James Bible, it seems odd to me to use a false argument to support a book of Truth.

The following was found in the Wikipedia article on the KJV

In most of the world the Authorized Version has passed out of copyright and is freely reproduced. This is not the case in the United Kingdom where the rights to the Authorized Version are held by the British Crown under perpetual Crown copyright. Publishers are licensed to reproduce the Authorized Version under letters patent. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the letters patent are held by the Queen's Printer, and in Scotland by the Scottish Bible Board. The office of Queen's Printer has been associated with the right to reproduce the Bible for many centuries, with the earliest known reference coming in 1577. In the 18th century all the surviving interests in the monopoly were bought out by John Baskett. The Baskett rights descended through a number of printers and, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Queen's Printer is now Cambridge University Press, who inherited the right when they took over the firm of Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1990.[55]

Other royal charters of similar antiquity grant Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press the right to produce the Authorized Version independently of the Queen's Printer. In Scotland the Authorized Version is published by Collins under license from the Scottish Bible Board. The terms of the letters patent prohibit those other than the holders, or those authorized by the holders from printing, publishing or importing the Authorized Version into the United Kingdom. The protection that the Authorized Version, and also the Book of Common Prayer, enjoy is the last remnant of the time when the Crown held a monopoly over all printing and publishing in the United Kingdom.[56]

I wanted to post this information just to ensure people were familiar with some facts that they may not have known.