It scares me that you thought it was necessary to say this.
"The issue of unexpired copyright is unlikely to be a problem with the Dead Sea scrolls, which date from between 150BC and 70AD."
Google to digitize Dead Sea Scrolls
Summary
The Israel Antiquities Authority has tapped Google to digitize the famous texts, one of the earliest documents ever discovered chronicling the early years of Christianity.
Topics
The Israel Antiquities Authority has tapped Google to digitize the famous Dead Sea scrolls, some of the oldest documents ever discovered chronicling the early years of Christianity.
CNN reports that Google will be responsible for scanning the 900 manuscripts, which are comprized of more than 30,000 fragments discovered in caves around Israel in the 1940s and 1950s.
Israeli researchers have come to worry about the ability of the scrolls to endure further photography, as exposure to light and air has a negative effect on the paper. Google will use spectral and infrared scanning techniques to make a digital copy of the scrolls, which will then be made available to the public online, according to the report.
Google was sued in 2005 for scanning 20th-century books with unexpired copyrights, and a final approval of that settlement with groups representing authors and publishers is still pending before a US judge. The issue of unexpired copyright is unlikely to be a problem with the Dead Sea scrolls, which date from between 150BC and 70AD.
For more on this story, read Google chosen to digitize Dead Sea Scrolls on CNET News.
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Some clarifications follow.
The Dead Sea scrolls do not "[chronicle] the early years of Christianity." They are "copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible ...; ... manuscripts ... that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible ...; and ... manuscripts ... that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism)...."
The Dead Sea scrolls were not "discovered ... around Israel." They were all discovered in one small area "in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea..."
The Dead Sea scrolls are not "on ... paper." They are "mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus."
The corrections come from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls, which says:
"The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank.
The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include the oldest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-biblical documents and preserve evidence of great diversity in late Second Temple Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus.[1] These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.[2] The scrolls are traditionally identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups.[3][4]
The Dead Sea Scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups: "Biblical" manuscripts (copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 40% of the identified scrolls; "Apocryphal" or "Pseudepigraphical" manuscripts (known documents from the Second Temple Period like Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, non-canonical psalms, etc., that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls; and "Sectarian" manuscripts (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk (Hebrew pesher ??? = "Commentary"), and the Rule of the Blessing, which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls"
The Dead Sea scrolls do not "[chronicle] the early years of Christianity." They are "copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible ...; ... manuscripts ... that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible ...; and ... manuscripts ... that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism)...."
The Dead Sea scrolls were not "discovered ... around Israel." They were all discovered in one small area "in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea..."
The Dead Sea scrolls are not "on ... paper." They are "mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus."
The corrections come from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls, which says:
"The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank.
The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include the oldest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-biblical documents and preserve evidence of great diversity in late Second Temple Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus.[1] These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.[2] The scrolls are traditionally identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups.[3][4]
The Dead Sea Scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups: "Biblical" manuscripts (copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 40% of the identified scrolls; "Apocryphal" or "Pseudepigraphical" manuscripts (known documents from the Second Temple Period like Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, non-canonical psalms, etc., that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls; and "Sectarian" manuscripts (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk (Hebrew pesher ??? = "Commentary"), and the Rule of the Blessing, which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls"
It will be interesting to see what happens when we run them through Google Translate.
The archaeologist that I learned from placed them at around 250-150 BC. I don't know of anything later than that. When telling people about them, I generally take the middle of that range and say "around 200 BC."
One must remember that these scrolls also depict one of the earliest known political attempt at anarchy and social rebellion.
They were used and misinterpreted by many a 'scholar' to justify inhumane and terrible political decisions, such as the razing down of the Islamic island of Malta and re-building it as a Christian city about 500 or so years ago.
These scrolls may have been 'discovered' conveniently in the recent past, but the information in them has been abused and propagated much the way the Koran is propagated today.
We criticize extremist Islam today, and yet we choose to be fascinated by its ancestor and precursor?
Strange is the human race, and even stranger are the scum who document it inaccurately.
They were used and misinterpreted by many a 'scholar' to justify inhumane and terrible political decisions, such as the razing down of the Islamic island of Malta and re-building it as a Christian city about 500 or so years ago.
These scrolls may have been 'discovered' conveniently in the recent past, but the information in them has been abused and propagated much the way the Koran is propagated today.
We criticize extremist Islam today, and yet we choose to be fascinated by its ancestor and precursor?
Strange is the human race, and even stranger are the scum who document it inaccurately.
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