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re:The online Bible et.al.


> Remember me? We wrote together sometime ago re: the online bible and
> related stuff.

I sure do, my Danish friend....

> First of all, thanks again for your efforts with the OLB - I have now
> aquired the version 6, and it is much better. I take your searching
> resulted in the rsv being 'free' to put in the archives?

Well, it turned out that there were 2 copies of the rsv floating
around.  1 was from the National Council of Churches and copyrighted,
and the other was from CCAT with the only requirement being that
the user mail in a registration form.  Larry in Canada was using the
National Council of Churches copy, but switched to the ccat copy.

Personally, I'm not real hot about the rsv.  Mainly due to it's
being produced by the NCC, which has become very lukewarm in its
position of Christianity.  Also because the NRSV is the replacement
of the rsv, and there was a lot of funny stuff going on with it.
They watered down alot of the language  -- so as not to convict
people of sin.

> I do have a couple of questions, though.

> Has the NIV/AV version been dropped? Not that I am actually going to buy
> one know (I think I'll stick with the RSV and/or Darby ones); I'm just
> being curious.

The NIV is copyrighted and cannot be distributed as those on WU.  If
someone wanted one, they would have to order it.  I'm not real hot
on the NIV either due to its being copyrighted, and hence restricting
the distribution of God's word.  The NIV also is a little on the
paraphrase side.  They get a little wordy in translating, and I always
wonder how much I am really getting of the translator, and how
much from God.  But, it's not real bad -- a lot of people use it.

> I noticed that you mentioned the Danish translation in the README file
> and in your note on the net. Does that refer to me, or to somebody else
> here in Denmark :-) I just wan't to be sure that we're not two different
> persons working independent on the same topic.

I think you are talking about the last section of the readme.  This was
a page of text that came with v.6 as an announcement.  I scanned it,
and added it to the readme.  I don't know what they are planning for
Danish.  You should contact Peter in Netherlands, listed in
'to-order.doc'.  He probably is the one working on it.  It must be
coincidence that he and you are both pursuing it.

The mention of a pending Italian Bible is related to me.  A fellow
in Italy is sending me a public domain Italian Bible and I will
be scanning it, doing some processing on the text and will send it
back to him for proof-reading.  When it's done, I hope we can give
a free OLB to the Pope.  :)

> The status of that is, by the way, the following:
>    The danish bible society has all danish bibles since about 1800 in
>    electronic format.

> How is this situation handled in other countries? Is this the best way
> to continue?

I would recommend that you forget about the new translation coming out,
and anything else copyrighted and subject to royalties.  For one thing
this limits the distribution.  I really am against copyrighted material,
where it seems the only priority is to keep the copyright holder rich.

If the Bible society has an older text in e-text, and will make it
available, that would be the way to go.  If it has some archaic words,
one can always go through and change them as footnotes.  My guess is,
that they will not make it available unless their is something in it
for them.

What we do is look for an old, printed copy, and scan it, proof-read,
and then it is public domain, and we cut the historical bible brokers
out of the picture.

You should contact Peter and find out what is going on currently, and
work with him to locate a public domain printed Bible.  If you
guys can locate one, I can scan it, and you can form a proof-reading
team.  It may be that is what they are doing now, in which case you could
offer your help.

> If they want, can they get the OLB and turn it into a commercial product
> (with proper royalties to the OLB copyright holders)? Not that this is
> the best situation, but they may ask me if that is possible.

I think Larry is not hot on this scenario.  A year or two ago he
got into this type of scenario, and it went absolutly nowhere.
He entered into some aggreement with the copyright holder of
the British NIV.  The deal was that the British NIV would be
made available in the OLB.  The result was that the OLB was
made virtually undistributable in England  -- you couldnt copy
for friends.  If you wanted it, you had to buy it.

Larry has also gotten in the same mess in Germany with the holder
of the newer version of the German translation.  I dont understand
the whole thing regarding the new and old versions.  But they
would not make their old (uncopyrighted) copy available, without
being made the distributer of OLB and putting their new Bible in
OLB at a ridiculous price.

The Darby Bible in English is part of the attempt to get away from
the British mess, and Larry has got a couple of people in Germany
working on a public Domain Bible to get away from that mess.

Earlier it seemed like a good idea, but.... history seems to prove
that these guys are only interested in money.  They care less about
spreading God's word, and care more for having exclusive revenue.

I think the better solution would be to gain an older public domain
text, doing it ourselves if we have to, and exclude the historic
powers who want to control and maintain exclusive rights.
I am against giving these types lucrative deals to get access
to God's word.  Larry told me a few months ago that he has
learned his lesson from these deals.  It all sounds good on paper,
but their is a fundamental difference between 'us' and 'them'....
we do it out of a love to spread the word, and they seem to do
it to make a living.

We have the same problem here.  The Nasb is an excellent translation,
but the copyright holders will not work with people like Larry.
They charge a rediculous price.  Darby is also meant to subvert
their empire since Darby is comparable to nasb.

Anyway, I would recommend contacting Peter to see what he
is doing concerning a Danish Bible.  If it is Public Domain,
I would volunteer to help him.  If it is not Public Domian,
maybe they 2 of you can obtain one from the Bible society,
and if not, then locate a printed one, and we can work on
putting it in etext.

mark