Re: Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls? How?

Paul Robinson wrote:
>
> 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.

If the work was distributed in Israel then an infringement could take place in Israel hence a law suit in Israel. If the copyright infringement was not against the original document but against some other related work (eg a translation or the concordance) then the time aspect is also disposed of. This maybe almost as effective as granting copyright in the original document if it is the only publically available source.

And don't completely discount copyright in the ancient document. A number of countries extend copyright-like protection to ancient tribal art. It does not seem at all unusual to me for Israel to also protect such important historical documents in a similar fashion (if that is what they have done).

> 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).

Or maybe the Exon Bill and similar legislation?? There are hundreds of examples of such legislation in all sorts of jurisdictions. That doesn't make it desirable, just a reality :-(  

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