Re: Very humorous story

>I thought that some of you may find this extremely funny:
>
> http://bbspot.com/News/2003/12/bible_pirates.html
>
>I became aware of this from Google's News Alert.
>
>
>On a serious note, I still maintain in my previous posts that
>believers twisted some portions from the Bible to justify their
>desire to control their works through copyright and intellectual
>property rights.
>
>
>Joseph Pietro Riolo
><riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
>http://www.boycottcopyright.com
>

On the other hand, Martin Luther wrote angry letters to the city council of Nuremburg in 1525, complaining about pirate editions of his writings. But what made him angry was not so much that copies were distributed as the fact that the copies had his name but not his content. His text had been altered. A small reading exercise of 16th century German:

"Du bist eyn dieb und für Gott schuldig die widdererstattung. Nu were der schaden dennoch zu leyden, wenn sie doch meyne bücher nicht so falsch und schendlich zu richten, Nu aber drucken sie die selbigen und eylen also, das, wenn sie zu myr widder komen, ich meyne eygene bücher nicht kenne."

(Luther, "Vorrhede und Vermanunge an die Drucker" from "Fastenpostille", [1525].)

Quick and dirty translation:

"You are a thief and owe to God the restitution. Now the harm would nevertheless be endurable, if my books weren't so wrongly and infamously rendered, now however they print the same [books] and hurry so much, that, when they come to me again, I don't recognize my own books."

Karl-Erik Tallmo

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