Re: Author's Rights

On 9 Apr 1996, Martha Luehrmann wrote:
>
> Jeff is right, obviously there were masterpieces of art, literature,
> and music long before there was copyright protection, but I put it to
> you that those works had a protection that was much better than law.
> Copying a book before Gutenberg took years of painstaking effort with
> pen and ink.

Music circulated freely in the medieval period, whether by minstrel or common folk song, wholly without the benefit or need of copyright. Musicians were paid for presenting the music, whether original or otherwise. Most ancient MSS were similarly freely copyable, provided one could read and write and could provide papyrus or vellum plus writing implements. Restrictions and royalties simply did not apply, though one legitimately could charge for the services rendered.

True incident: One ancient monk (apparently named Feist *;-), complained in a marginal colophon about how much "sweat of the brow" he put into copying a manuscript of the Gospels, but at the end he thanked God for being permitted to help transmit the sacred document to others without hope of remuneration. Had that monk not been celibate, I suppose some of his descendants today might be complaining over the lost revenue rightly due to them on the basis of that 12th century monk's work.....

Maurice A. Robinson, Ph.D.           Assoc. Prof./Greek and New Testament
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary     Wake Forest, North Carolina
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