Copyright and Attribution

Question

I recently posted a question including quotations from the bible. I didn't give it much thought at the time but later remembered that many versions of the bible, including the ESV I used, are copyright and subject to certain rules.

Do we have a specific policy/guidelines for quotations on the site, and if not, should we have? Would it perhaps be useful to list whatever the rules are by translation here on meta?

For example, the ESV copyright notice on Bible Gateway says

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.

While quotes online aren't specifically mentioned this leads me to believe that is what we should be doing here and my quote should perhaps look like this instead:

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.   _ESV

— edit —

As mentioned by @dancek, there is a userscript for getting ready-made markdown from Bible Geteway - I've forked the script and changed the formatting to suit my preferences. Here it is in case you'd like to make use of it: view/download, producing output like:

²Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.  _ESV

Finally, if we should always be citing the translation, how should we deal with questions that don't - edit them or leave a comment?

Answer 1

Whenever quoting a Bible translation, it's common sense to identify the translation*. This should be always required; edit if necessary. I wouldn't think it's very important whether the translation is specified before or after the passage, as long as it's understandable.

The legal aspects might need further review, but that's really SE's problem -- not ours. We shouldn't willfully breach copyright, but Bible translations are basically meant to be used and quoted, so our use shouldn't be a problem. Image copyrights might be a bigger issue.

*_{An easy way to get nicely formatted Bible passages with little work is to use an userscript. @Caleb has one in the works, and I made one that has already seen some use on Christianity.SE: https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/449/userscript-for-generating-markdown-from-biblegateway-com}

Answer 2

Stack Exchange content itself is licensed with specific attribution requirements and thus it would be discourteous (aside from any actual legal technicalities) not to attribute a biblical translation as requested. (Or at least in a visible and unambiguous fashion.)

The practice of a visible attribution that is then linked to a site like Bible Gateway as suggested by others appears to be the socially accepted procedure. It also seems like a reasonable accommodation for a site where users may use any translation they choose which makes it very difficult to provide all the exact requested copyright statements for any given contribution.

In short, I have no idea whether a linked attribution as illustrated in other posts is enough to prevent a legal dispute, but it does seem like a reasonable and respectful approach from my perspective.

Answer 3

I just looked into this for another question, this is a useful reference for copyright questions - http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html#howmuch :

Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.

I agree with @Jack's suggestion of including the version - I think that should do the trick for our purposes.

Answer 4

Add a link on the template to link to Bible Gateway or some other online resource with multiple versions, with a statement making it the official site for attribution.

Then add five new functionalities to the site:

1. The standard wiki footnote tag <ref> with <references>.

2. a modified reference which imports the quote from the chosen Bible resource site. <bref>

3. an inline import <ibref> which puts the quote inline rather than as a footnote.

4. A user preference for default version imports.

5. Then if there a way to write an article or comment and save it privately, I would use the tool for composing articles over time, and publish it when I was ready. This would give me the time to thoughtfully review my own writing before pushing the button. Word Press has this function.

Answer 5

If possible, I'd like to avoid identifying the translation in the text of an answer or question. Unless a post is about a translation issue, the little letters before or after a quote are simply distractions to whatever point I'm trying to make. I don't want people to wonder why I used the ESV rather than the NASB when the real reason is that I just happened to have a tab open to ESV somewhere.

My usual technique for quoting Bible passages (or for that matter anything else on the web) is to include a link to the copy I borrowed in the verse citation. So John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I feel this is reasonably clear to the reader who wants to know which version I've used. Looking over various copyright notices, I don't think this practice complies with them, however. The publisher of the NASB actually requires a link in addition to the notification:

When quotations are primarily from the NASB text on an Internet Web page (scripture quotations not from the NASB must be identified), instead of the full copyright notice on the title page, this notice must be placed somewhere on the Web page containing the quotations:

“Scripture quotations taken from the NASB." 
(This notice must be a click enabled Web link to www.lockman.org.)

When quotations from the NASB® text are used in not-for-sale media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies or similar media, the abbreviation (NASB®) may be used after the quotation. On a Web page, the abbreviation must be a click enabled Web link to www.lockman.org.

Another solution, suggested by the NASB notice, is to pick a default version and stick the copyright notice in the FAQ or somesuch. As long as the quotation is taken from that particular version, there's no need to identify the translation. Quotations from other translations would require the version identifier. The tricky bit is finding a version that we can agree upon and also has a relatively liberal licence.