Writing & Publishing Using Bible quotations, copyright, and Copyright Law

MisterChris

MisterChris

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There appears to be some confusion in Christian circles as to whether ALL Scripture is public domain, or whether it's copyrighted, whether you can quote it without permission, and how much of that you can quote.

Frankly I knew the KJV was public domain, and probably the Douay-Rheims was too as they both were pre-1900. But NKJV was Thomas Nelson, so I knew I'd probably at least need a copyright statement.
As I cranked out my 365-Day devotionals that became a critical issue, especially as I moved toward publication of them. Back then (about 5 years ago) I crafted a spreadsheet of the versions I used, and discovered unfortunately as I ran around the NET looking, that some of those couldn't be used at ALL, and some could only be used with written permission, copies of my books sent to them, and them with the option of revoking the permission too.

So another question on a FB Formum got me to re-craft a spreadsheet, and some of the permissions had actually changed. (some versions allowed more verses, etc). The Google Docs link below is a spreadsheet I whipped up that has the #verses you can use without written permission, the % of your work that can consist of those verses without permission, and then the copyright notice you'd need to paste into your copyright page.

Hope this helps, I'd imagine a lot of us quote the bible in one translation or another.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y2rCu0PgzaJ0NE3VlpzshNvtOvZeA9tb?usp=sharing
 
LOL! That's where I got the info on that spreadsheet. I spent several hours doing it, flipping from one version's copyright page to another, jumping forward to their publisher website when needed for clarification, etc.

It's just all in one place, for idiots like me that grab 30 different Bible translations for their devotionals.
 
When I first learned about Bible translations copyrights, I thought, “You can’t quote the Bible, either!?” This is one thing I’m concerned about when it comes time to publish my book, so I really needed this. Thanks, Chris.
 
William D'Andrea said:
Has any writer ever had any trouble from the publisher of a modern bible translation, that the writer has quoted?
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I would rather fly by that verse about avoiding the 'appearance of evil' and follow copyright law rather than skirt the issue and end up in trouble when my books sell a million copies. ;-) I DOUBT the publishers routinely go after small fry, but if your book sold tens of thousands of copies and you made an actual living from your book, then it could happen. You can expect that David Jeremiah, Beth Moore, John MacArthur, and so many more follow these rules. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/06/23/bible-copyright-law/

Here's an example from 2011 of a lawsuit of one version suing another:
https://sbcvoices.com/tyndale-kjv-plagiarism/
 
And here's an explanation of that. I didn't find any verification of or results of the lawsuit MisterChris referred to. I seriously doubt that any court in any country would consider a lawsuit from an action that many centuries ago.


There is the detail that both are translations, so some of the similarities would come from translating individual words using the same language. For example: The English translation of "Me llama Carolina" is commonly reworded from "I call myself Carolina" to the normal English sentence, "My name is Carolina." Is that plagiarism?
 
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It was authorized by King James, and the Crown has kept the patent, not copyright, ever since.

According to cambridge.org,
King James Version

Rights in The Authorized Version of the Bible (King James Bible) in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown and administered by the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press. The reproduction by any means of the text of the King James Version is permitted to a maximum of five hundred (500) verses for liturgical and non-commercial educational use, provided that the verses quoted neither amount to a complete book of the Bible nor represent 25 per cent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted, subject to the following acknowledgement being included:

Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press

When quotations from the KJV text are used in materials not being made available for sale, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, presentation materials, or similar media, a complete copyright notice is not required but the initials KJV must appear at the end of the quotation.

Rights or permission requests (including but not limited to reproduction in commercial publications) that exceed the above guidelines must be directed to the Permissions Department, Cambridge University Press, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS, UK (https://www.cambridge.org/about-us/rights-permissions) and approved in writing.
 
I just did a quick on-line check concerning copywrite laws here in the U.S. Copywrites are limited to 70 years. I think that most Bible translations are much older than that. So, there should be no problem for anyone who quotes as much scripture as her or she wants.
All praise and thanks to the Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.
 
No, William. You have to check each individual version. And you can check them through the link I left to BibleGateway. Each Bible has its own limit of verses that can be used without permission.
 
William that's not accurate - it's 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. Here's a link to the official law at the copyright office.
https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.html#:~:text=As a general rule, for,plus an additional 70 years.

Many translations we use today are modern translations, which were copyrighted after 1960. While 70 years after date of copyright sounds nice, even with that reasoning they would still be under copyright for at least another 6 years.

Also, if you look in the front of your bible, you will find a string of copyright dates, as these companies often make significant changes (even to a translation of a bible) and then refile the copyright. One of the versions I read over asks you to stipulate on your copyright page ONLY the copyright date of the version you used, rather than the string of dates in their official copyright notice.

So, there should be no problem for anyone who quotes as much scripture as her or she wants.
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Bottom line: you can violate copyright law if you wish, at your own peril. If your book sells less than 1000 copies it may not matter one whit. You would likely be underneath the radar of Tyndale House or Thomas Nelson. You may go through life with no repercussions until you pop into the throneroom and explain to the King.

At that point, with perfect compassion and perfect wisdom, and perfect justice, he will EITHER place the sins of the copyright holders, who should have made their efforts free to the common public, at the foot of the cross, as He would have had to do for the decisions of the church to not allow anybody but the clergy to understand, interpret or even translate God's Word, OR he'll hold us to task over the sins of not giving the laborer their hire (as these translations did indeed take labor), and lay those sins there too.
OR (one more option) we'll all see a bit of disappointment from the one who died for us, a timeout in the corner, and a loss of some of our reward as it's burned up in fire.

In the afterlife, God will sort out the mess and we all, after we get a glimpse of the alternative, will just be eternally grateful to be there. In this life, however, God expects us to, as much as we can, live peaceably with all men. And if that means I have to scan my Word document for (NKJV) and count the number of hits, and place a copyright notice at the front of my books, that's a very small price to pay, and I'm grateful I don't have to just stick to the Pub Domain versions.
 
MisterChris said:
There appears to be some confusion in Christian circles as to whether ALL Scripture is public domain, or whether it's copyrighted, whether you can quote it without permission, and how much of that you can quote.

Frankly I knew the KJV was public domain, and probably the Douay-Rheims was too as they both were pre-1900. But NKJV was Thomas Nelson, so I knew I'd probably at least need a copyright statement.
As I cranked out my 365-Day devotionals that became a critical issue, especially as I moved toward publication of them. Back then (about 5 years ago) I crafted a spreadsheet of the versions I used, and discovered unfortunately as I ran around the NET looking, that some of those couldn't be used at ALL, and some could only be used with written permission, copies of my books sent to them, and them with the option of revoking the permission too.

So another question on a FB Formum got me to re-craft a spreadsheet, and some of the permissions had actually changed. (some versions allowed more verses, etc). The Google Docs link below is a spreadsheet I whipped up that has the #verses you can use without written permission, the % of your work that can consist of those verses without permission, and then the copyright notice you'd need to paste into your copyright page.

Hope this helps, I'd imagine a lot of us quote the bible in one translation or another.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y2rCu0PgzaJ0NE3VlpzshNvtOvZeA9tb?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thank you for the hard work you put into your spreadsheet and sharing it! Bless you!
 
Chris, I must have missed your spreadsheet before but downloaded it. Some things puzzled me. Since I rely on the copyrights, I found a few additions you might want to add.

*CEB / CEB / GNT
"When quotations from the CEB text are used in nonsalable media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies, or similar media, the initials (CEB) may be used at the end of each quotation." And the CEV is actually under americanbible.org and free to use according to what is stated there. This also includes GNT.

*ESV
When quotations from the ESV text are used in non-saleable media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies, or similar media, a complete copyright notice is not required, but the initials (ESV) must appear at the end of the quotation.
Publication of any commentary or other Bible reference work produced for commercial sale that uses the English Standard Version must include written permission for use of the ESV text.
Permission requests that exceed the above guidelines must be directed to Good News Publishers, Attn: Bible Rights, 1300 Crescent Street, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA.
Permission requests for use within the UK and EU that exceed the above guidelines must be directed to HarperCollins Religious, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, HammerSmith, London W6 8JB, England.

*ISV / cite to be used as reference in commercial works
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version. Release 2.0, Build 2015.02.09. Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.

*Jubilee
May be quoted in other works. May be used freely in all non-profit, non-commercial Bible distribution endeavors provided the content is not altered. For all commercial reproduction, express written permission from the publisher is required.
Previous editions, published in Colombia Copyright, 2000, 2001, 2010
Printed in the United States of America
Ransom Press International and logos are trademarks of,
Ransom Press International, Inc.
4918 Roosevelt Street Hollywood, Florida, 33021
ISBN: 978-1-64765-022-3
eBook ISBN: 978-1-64765-021-6
If you have questions or comments, please contact us at: ransompress@outlook.com

*TLB / cite to be used
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

*NIRV
https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-International-Readers-Version-NIRV-Bible/#copy

*Orthodox Jewish
Up to 500 verses of the OJB may be quoted in any form without written
permission, provided no complete book of the Bible is quoted. Notice of
copyright must appear on the copyright page of the work as follows:
Scripture taken from The Orthodox Jewish Bible
Copyright @ 2023 by AFI Intemational. All rights reserved.
When OJB quotations are used in bulletins, posters, or other non-commercial
media, only OJB must appear at the end of the quotation and the complete
copyright notice is not required.
Any other use of OJB, contact AFII P.O. BOX 2056 NY NY 10163

*Tree of Life
The TLV text may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic, or audio) up to and inclusive of two hundred and fifty (250) verses without express written permission of the publisher, providing the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for 25 percent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted:
Notice of copyright must appear on the title or copyright page of the work as follows:
Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*.
Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
 
Yeah, sigh. That wasn't an oversight. I haven't read through all the copyright notices and permissions you quoted there (thanks, though, that closes the gap a bit) but I purposely left off any translation that required me to send in a hardcopy of my work or ask for permission to use their version in my work (no max limit on verses, just a mandate to ask permission).

Some of us here are willing to take that step, especially if you are writing commentaries on whole books of the Bible, in which case you practically HAVE to ask permission. Eh, but that's not me, usually. While my faith and everything I write falls under a firm stand on the 5 solas and the Creeds, and pretty much align with Protestant tenets of the faith, I seem to lean more Calvinist than Armenian, though not 100% either way. Some of my TULIP is a bit wilted I suppose, or at least lower case. Anyway, no matter where you lean across THAT fence, those waters tend to get dicey when you want to publish a commentary like my Unpacking Leviticus (The Third Night Journey of Nicodemus) or its Prequel/Sequel, Unpacking the 12 questions of Pilate (The Second Night Journey of Nicodemus), or the one waiting in the wings on Unpacking Deuteronomy (The Fourth Night Journey of Nicodemus).

Frankly, writing fiction about Nicodemus at all could set a Bible Translator off. HOW do you know he was actually a believer? (Well, uh, he DID take Jesus' body and put it in the tomb) HOW do you know he had a Greek servant? Wouldn't that make him unclean? (Um, I didn't know, I made it up, because it's fiction, and a foreign slave was allowed in any home in Israel.) Etc. Etc. I did a LOT of research on that book, and don't really want to have to defend it over and over again.
 
Yeah, sometimes readers forget they're reading fiction. And I agree with what you said. 👍
 
Thank you so much for doing this, Chris.

So, to clarify, the versions that are left blank (such as Darby, NET, etc.) are versions that have no copyrights and are completely ‘fair game’ so to speak? Or are they left blank for a different reason?
 
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