View Single Post
Old 07-20-2014, 09:51 AM   #36
skreutzer
Software Developer
skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.skreutzer considers 'yay' to be a thoroughly cromulent word.
 
skreutzer's Avatar
 
Posts: 189
Karma: 89000
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Germany
Device: PocketBook Touch Lux 3
I sometimes observe that the Vimeo player doesn't play the video in some browsers, however, Vimeo offers video download (if the author permits). Anyway, I mirror them on YouTube. But at least you didn't discover a broken Vimeo link, did you?

Interesting, German law has a exception for documents produced by some bureaus too, but hasn't issued any Bible translation as far as I know. So you and the publisher website where you've obtained the text from seem to be in a pretty lucky situation ;-)

Copyright and prices are a completely separate, unrelated topic (except they get artificially connected together in some kind of old-fashioned, pre-digital "business model" of restriction to access). There are works which are gratis, but restrictively licensed, and there are freely licensed works one has to pay for. For physical copies, still one deserves some or all necessary freedoms to the contents of it (depending of the type of work), but one cannot expect gratis physical books, because making and distributing them, in opposition to digital goods, is a costly effort that has to be compensated one way or another.

The bible is meant to be distributed and read. Luther and others translated the text into the language of the people, the Reformation was strongly supported by book printing technology. Nowadays there's even better technology, but inadequate copyright law keeps Christians from their very foundational texts they need to work with.

I too don't know the biblical languages, but I know programming, so I support the projects in my language with technical assistance. Usually there are always some tasks for any given person, be it proofreading, promotion, organization, whatever. From your question I guess Sweden doesn't have such a project, but maybe doesn't need one because of Bible 2000, right?

That's right, but every translation establishes new copyright protection. Further, even the scientific versions of the ancient text are presented in a way which establishes new copyright protection, and you can't simply go to a museum, archive or library in order to look up the handwritten manuscripts yourself. Digital versions of them are rare, and even sometimes embedded into some "special" software which establishes new copyright for the whole presentation.

Quote:
In the case of the Bible, the last authors to contribute died in the first century and they sacificed their lives to spread the message.
As of the Reformationsbibeln and similar projects, I'm quite unsure about what branch of preservation can be considered the "more correct", since that's a fairly complex topic. I do care much more about the question, if their text is freely licensed, because if it would be (or if at least one translation is for every language), other versions could be based upon it by modifying it (derivative work), so serious study can take place in all kinds of collaborative study tools, annotations or comparison tables, made accessible to everyone. Unfortunately they chose restrictive licensing, which is inacceptable because it prevents the spread of the text over commercial distribution channels or it prevents situations where somebody can't produce/distribute copies except with compensation of a buyer, namely physical books in large quantities.

Digitalizing and proofreading old bible translations is time-consuming work, but as I don't know the ancient languages, that's what I do ;-) At least the language hasn't changed that much or could be updated once the text is available in digital form. Still, an authentic version should be made and not an updated one right away, so that the authentic one can be a reliable source for other projects as well and will allow comparisons to other bible translations of its time.

If the Swedish Bible 2000 isn't copyright protected and you put effort into it creating an EPUB, why don't you put it up to some server? In general, a free Christian e-book library hopefully will develop over time (many existing individuals who have online material repositories refuse that), or at least general purpose e-book hosters could be considered.

Be careful, the idea of the website you've obtained the Bible 2000 text from might be to make some changes to the original text from the state project in order to establish new copyright protection.
skreutzer is offline   Reply With Quote