Here's an excerpt from an article "Bibles are only Milk"
By Richard Anthony
Some interesting thought's on anything that's copyrighted particularly bible's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a 'new work' or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a pre-existing work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes." --The Derivative Copyright Law (partial).
Did you read that? In order for a bible to be copyrighted, it must be "substantially different" from the original texts!
No wonder there are so many different doctrines going around today. No wonder there are so many contradictions in bibles! No wonder copyrighted bibles are so different from one another and say completely different things! They must be substantially different from one another in order to be copyrighted! Dear reader, the copyrighted bible you have in your possession is not the Holy Scripture, it is a translation which is substantially different from the scripture! Copyright:
"The legal protection given to authors and artists to prevent reproduction of their work without their consent. The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to print, reprint, publish, copy and sell the material covered by the copyright." The New Standard Encyclopedia, volume 3, page 565.First of all, who is the "owner" of God's Word? Well obviously, the one who created it; God. Certainly, not mere man. So how can any man copyright God's Word? The answer is he can't and he doesn't, because man can only copyright "their own words," and not the words of another. Therefore, copyrighted bibles contain the words of man and not the words of God.
Secondly, did you know if you quote from, or copy from, or preach from, one of these copyrighted bibles, without the written permission of the "author" of that work, did you know you can be fined, imprisoned, and penalized for doing so? In other words, whoever owns the copyright to a bible is preventing you from repeating what is contained in that bible! Does mere man have the authority to prevent someone from sharing God's Word with others? No, he doesn't. But since copyrighted bibles contain the words of men, only some man's personal interpretation of the words of God, they can prevent others from using "their" bibles.
And think about this, if you have to get the bible "author's" permission, then obviously this work is "created" by some man who believes he himself is the "author" of this bible. He is basically saying, "Before you can preach God's Word, you must go through me and ask my permission!" This is basically what copyrighted bibles demand!
Look at any copyrighted bible for proof of this. Here is the copyright notice to the New International Version
(the NIV Bible - © Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984):
The NIV text may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio), up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, providing the verses do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for twenty-five percent (25%) or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted.
How serious of an offense can copyright infringement be? According to the Copyright Law itself, from Title 17, Chapter 12, of the U.S.Code, Section 1204, the criminal offenses and penalties of someone who violates a copyright shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense; and shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both, for any subsequent offense.
The United States Public Domain and Copyright Rules state:
"Works first published before January 1, 1923 with proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date copyright was first secured. Hence, all works whose copyrights were secured before 1923 are now in the public domain".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What that last quote seems to be saying is any copyright 75 yrs old or older are in the public domain and can be used any way you want, so going back 75 yrs from 2007 we come to 1932.
All copyrighted works before 1932 are in the public domain.
Now those works from 1932 to date have restrictions as to their use.
What it looks like the WTS is doing with Vero/eBay and co/do's is that the org. is having the co/do's contacting eBay and saying the seller's of WTS material are infringing their copyright's
Ebay doesn't investigate the claim, they just shut down your auction for that item.
Then you the seller on ebay, have to get permission from the copyright holder, and you know what their answer will be.
Anyway, there able to shut down anyone, no questions asked.
Acadian
