I heard that to copyright something requires more than 10% change. So someone would have to change the GB Bible quite a bit to copyright their translation?
KJV-only authors make a claim like that, but they do not prove that their claim is true.
Greyden Press has a 2000 copyright on a digital reprint of the 1611 edition of the KJV that is supposed to have no revisions or changes. On its copyright page, this is asserted: "By purchasing this book and receiving ownership of this copy, you expressly agree that you and any one to whom you transfer this book to is not entitled to reproduce or to all anyone else to reproduce all or any portion of its contents without our prior consent."
The fact that the 1994 21st Century KJV and the 1998 Third Millennium Bible that are almost identical in text both have copyrights would seem to conflict with the KJV-only claims about copyright.
According to actual copyright law, do translators or revisers have to replace factual or accurate renderings of original language words in earlier English Bibles with different words? Authors, who have studied and explained copyright law, do not agree with typical KJV-only claims.
A derivative work could only be properly made with the permission of the underlying source’s copyright owner when that source is still copyrighted. The copyright of that derivative work would only apply to the new material created or added by its author. Richard Stim quoted the statue as stating: “The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the material contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting material employed in the work” (
Patent, Copyright & Trademark, p. 324). Richard Stim maintained: “Under copyright law, factual works receive less protection than works of fiction because the underlying facts are legally considered to be in the public domain” (p. 239). Lloyd Jassin and Steven Schechter wrote: “Because copyright does not protect ideas and facts, copying alone is not enough to prove copyright infringement” (
Copyright Permission, p. 20). Jassin and Schechter added: “Where fact and expression merge, such as in the portrayal of factual truths, copyright protection is said to be extremely ’thin’” (
Ibid.). Jassin and Schechter maintained: “Extracting pure facts from a copyrighted work is not copyright infringement” (p. 55). Jassin and Schechter asserted: “Unfortunately, no simple rule exists for distinguishing uncopyrightable facts from their copyrightable expression” (
Ibid.).