Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls? How?

> There has been a case in Israel... against a professor here in the
> States who took Dead Sea Scroll material ... recreated ... and then
> proceeded to publish his reconstruction.

(1) How in the world does an ISRAELI court have jurisdiction over an

    alleged infringement occuring within the United States?

(2) How can the mere ownership of a scroll raise a copyright issue? If

    I find letters in an attic of a place I move to, I own the letters     but I do not have any right to publish them {or restrict someone else     who has a copy from doing so} unless either I own the copyright     because I wrote the letters or I have an assignment of copyright     from the owner.

(3) How can there be an infringement upon a work where the authors are

    known to be dead for more than 50 years? (I can presume that if these     are the "Dead Sea Scrolls" that the material is several thousand years     old.)

This sounds a little farfetched to believe. Otherwise it's shocking if true.

What I suspect, given what was stated, is (1) The scrolls were found in some archeological excavation; (2) that professor was part of the people who were looking; (3) there was some kind of non-disclosure agreement signed by him; (4) the material was published notwithstanding the NDE; and (5) the NDE allowed litigation to be done in Israel.

Didn't any of the alleged shysters ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H lawyers on this list consider how serious a matter it would be to allow a plaintiff in a copyright case to sue someone outside of the jurisdiction where the incident occurred? If the alleged "infringement" - assuming there can be a copyright on a work which is several hundred or several thousand years old - occurred in the U.S., then that is the place where the suit should be founded.

To do otherwise would legitimize such actions as Iran issuing a death sentence in absentia against Salman Rushdie, for actions which allegedly are illegal in that country, even though the actions occurred where they are not illegal (the book was originally published in Great Britain).

Just another message from the <A HREF="mailto:paul[_at_]TDR.COM" mailbox </A> of Paul Robinson. Received on Sat Mar 09 1996 - 11:36:00 GMT