Which bibles are not copyrighted

Therefore, with a Public Domain Bible, you may freely copy, publish, distribute, print, adapt, make derivitive works i. You do not need to ask for permission to do any of these things, because there is no copyright owner with an exclusive legal right to control these uses.

You may not claim a copyright on the Public Domain text yourself or prevent others from using the Public Domain text, even if you convert the text to another format. Doing so is called copyfraud , and is a form of stealing intellectual property rights from the general public. A Public Domain work remains in the Public Domain even if you print and sell it. You may, however, claim a copyright on your own creative works such as study notes or commentaries that you might publish along with a Public Domain Bible.

In that case, the Trademark may only be used in accordance with the Tradmark owner's restrictions. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What major translations of the Bible are in the Public Domain? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 5 months ago. Active 1 year, 1 month ago. Viewed k times. Given this, what significant translations of the Bible can I actually quote at length? Improve this question. Community Bot 1. Affable Geek Affable Geek It's unlikely that you'll need to quite the entire Bible in any scholarly setting.

And quoting any copyrighted work for the purpose of commentary or scholarly discourse is perfectly acceptable. So, for any purpose on this site, I think any translation is acceptable to quote.

And before anyone says, "This would be better on Politics. SE," a certain moderator I'm very close to there says, "I want it on C. Stop using your connections to get what you want!!! This question appears to be off-topic because it is a shopping question. Show 8 more comments.

Active Oldest Votes. The issue with copyright translations. A paragraph from the site's FAQ is worth quoting: The copyright laws of most nations and the international treaties that support them are a mixed blessing.

As Paul says: The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. But God's Word should be free, man! In fact I'll let the Crossway publishers of the ESV blog have the final word : We're not going to come after you if you don't cite quotes from the ESV according to these guidelines.

Improve this answer. Daniel Gray 6 6 bronze badges. Jon Ericson Jon Ericson 9, 1 1 gold badge 45 45 silver badges 96 96 bronze badges. I'm going to add WEB to my list I'm assuming you'll be okay with that , but I like how your post really gets to the heart of the issues, ergo the check mark! Affable Geek: No problem. This post started as an edit, but it got too big to fit in a bullet point.

With P. They can change their policy to whatever they like, whenever they like. Then everyone is obliged to follow the new policy. So hypothetically, if you copy x chapters of WFCV Bible whatever free copy version and send it to a Billion folks, but they decide later they have disagreements with you, they can just change their policy.

Appreciate it! I made a Bible search application aaronjs. I've got a couple of public domain versions in there. I think I'd add ESV now! Add a comment. See also this Meta comment about KJV and the associated discussion. You'll find a list of English text Bibles with their date of publication on this page: en.

What is an "autor"? Thanks for correcting the copyright information. But I am still going to be left with a comment attached! You've made a slight error in your list of translations of the Bible that are in the public domain. You rightly state that the NRSV is still subject copyright, but your mistake lies in the statement that the RSV is in the public domain. Both copyrights are still in force. The second way for a work to enter the public domain is through dedication. These publishers willingly give up their copyright in order for ownership to immediately go to the public without a year wait.

This is what the publishers of the World English Bible did. They saw the need for a Bible in modern English to exist in the public domain, and they graciously filled that need.

It has freshened up the archaic language of the ASV, smoothed out its grammar, and made it more palatable to English speakers today. They also updated the translation in a few places to reflect the Greek Majority Text.

The best part? Because the World English Bible is in the Public Domain not copyrighted , it can be freely copied, distributed, and redistributed without any payment of royalties. You may publish the whole World English Bible in book form, bind it in leather and sell it.

You may incorporate it into your Bible study software. You may make and distribute audio recordings of it. You may broadcast it. I do have a few qualms with this translation. Again, it has its place. But I prefer translations based on an eclectic Greek New Testament. Understandably, that would have been a major undertaking for an online public domain Bible.

At the end of the day, the WEB is a strong translation with the incredibly convenient lack of copyright. However, there are a few other options for you, even for popular versions that are protected by a copyright. Even though Bible translations are technically copyrighted, many are very gracious when it comes to citation and distribution. Check out the following considerations for how to cite and distribute copyrighted versions of the Bible. But the real value of this version comes in the 60, translation notes, that comment on anything and everything, from detailed linguistic explanations, to cultural context of the scripture, to commentary-style interpretations, and so much more.

You can copy, cite, and distribute the NET in full without any permission. There are a few other guidelines to follow, like how to attribute the text to the NET. The restrictions are mainly the same from version to version. You can quote up to 1, verses without express permission. And with the ability to cite up to 1, verses in a single work without permission, you really have a lot of leeway there.

Again, check the copyright page for more details like how to cite the Bible version.