Editing the Public Domain for God.
What is the “Public Domain?”
Under U.S. Copyright law, a work that is “created” (fixed in tangible form for the first time), is automatically protected from the moment of its creation for a term lasting for the author’s life, plus an additional 70 years. For works made for hire, a copyright lasts for 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Once this time runs, the work is no longer copyrighted and becomes part of the public domain. No one controls it anymore.
What can you do with a work in the public domain? Pretty much anything you like.
Introducing the 50-page Creationist’s Introduction to Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (read the Living Waters’ introduction here), a project of Conservapedia to remove “liberal Bias” from the Bible, and for nostalgia’s sake, one of the earliest attempts to edit religious text-the 19th Century Woman’s Bible.
While folks may have a knee jerk “thats-not-right” response to editing controversial works, it underscores the fact that any work in the public domain-from the Bible to On The Origin of Species-is free for anyone to make use of, however they see fit.
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