Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi,

Quoting dwashbur AT nyx.net:

> My own questions:
>
> a) what would the esteemed sopherim need to do, precisely?

Well, first of all we just need people who are willing to do quick  
copies of each manuscript character per character into a digital  
format of some kind. I could create some kind of web interface to make  
this easier.

Then each digital MSS would have to be checked and rechecked by  
different sopherim. The beauty of doing this with a computer is that  
it would be really easy for me to implement automatic correctness  
checks like is the nth character what it should be and so on.

> b) what sorts of copyright issues are likely to arise, especially   
> where the DSS are
> concerned?

Do you want the official public answer or my real feelings on the  
subject? I'll give you both just in case:

PUBLIC ANSWER - some legally sounding tripe I can muster up that makes  
it all sound legit.

TRUE FEELINGS - the only people who have any real rights to any kind  
of copyright on the DSS are the original owners who are long dead (I  
assume). And even if they were alive I'm sure they wouldn't mind. They  
were after all our fellow sopherim.

My agenda is to make this available to people who want to be able to  
and have a right to be able to consult these sources for free. If  
people want to take me to court over it then all I can say is 'Bring  
it on', 'Sue me for every penny I don't have'.

If it really is an issue to anybody I can provide secure encrypted  
access to off-shore servers with a complete guarantee of anonymity (I  
won't be doing any checking up on who you are or where you live - I  
don't particularly care). If you like I can even teach you how to use  
anonymity networks that hide you MAC address and bounce your internet  
activity in such a complicated pattern that it will be impossible even  
for you service provider to know which remote offshore servers you are  
truly working on. This is a little overkill I know. But if anybody  
really feels the need to take these measures they're in good hands.

James Christian

> On 15 Aug 2009 at 20:15, James Read wrote:
>
> > This reminds me of a plan I've been working on all Summer and have
> > been meaning to pass to the list members to see how it would be
> > received.
> >
> > I would like to build a freely available digital library of digital
> > MSS of all biblical texts (and closely related) in every extant
> > language. The kind of thing that the inquiring mind can browse and
> > search on line. I want it to be professionally catalogued so that a
> > user can see the text of any MSS on demand and in a font which
> > resembles the text in the original MSS. Obviously, this will take
> > countless man hours of voluntary work but the benefits to the
> > community I think would be worth it.
> >
> > So my questions to the list members are:
> >
> > a) would this be the kind of thing you would use?
> >
> > b) would anybody like to be one of the esteemed sopherim?
> >
> > James Christian
> >
> > Quoting dwashbur AT nyx.net:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 15 Aug 2009 at 10:21, Fred Schafer wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hi, I've just begun learning Hebrew, and I was wondering where I
> > can
> > >> read the biblical manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  So far,
> > the
> > >> only books I can find have only the non-biblical material, such
> > as
> > >> "The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition".  I've seen that
> > Accordance
> > >> Bible Software has a DSS module, but the software and module
> > cost
> > >> hundreds of dollars.  What other options are available?
> > >
> > > Not to be excessively self-promoting, but my book, "A Catalog of
> > > Biblical Passages in the
> > > Dead Sea Scrolls," gives extensive bibliographic information for
> > > both biblical scrolls and
> > > non-biblical scrolls containing biblical texts.  The vast majority
> > > of the scrolls are published
> > > with photos in the series "Discoveries in the Judean Desert" from
> > > Oxford, but believe me,
> > > you don't want to try and buy them.  Better to find a library that
> > > has them because the cost
> > > of them makes the Accordance module look like a bargain.
> > >
> > > The other big problem with the Accordance module, of course, is
> > that
> > >  it pretty much only
> > > works on Mac, at least the last I heard.  But if you can get near
> > a
> > > decent academic library,
> > > my book can help you find some good quality photo editions and
> > such
> > > to work with.
> > >
> > > Dave Washburn
> > >
> > > http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > b-hebrew mailing list
> > > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> > Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
>
> Dave Washburn
>
> http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.