---------------Original Message---------------

... And wasn't there a court
case in the early 1990s where an Israeli court granted a copyright to a
reconstruction of a manuscript from Qumron (Dead Sea Scroll) to the
scroll editor based on this principle.  (I'll check my files on this
one, but if any one can confirm or correct this I'd greatly appreciate
it.)...

Richard Gerrard


----------End of Original Message----------

The Israeli court held that the scholar who created a theoretical reconstruction/reading of the accumulated fragments of a manuscript could claim copyright in his work, the hypothetical reconstruction & interpretation, not of course in the original scroll (which has been in the public domain for rather a long time.)  Despite what seems to be a perfectly logical decision, the defense (the infringer) is appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court, and the case will come up soon.

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name: amalyah keshet
head of visual resources / the israel museum, jerusalem
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
date: 02/27/97
visit our Web site at http://www.imj.org.il
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