October 13, 2000

Scholar Says Deciphering Dead Sea Scrolls Doesn't Warrant Copyright

By HAIM WATZMAN

When an Israeli linguist deciphered the text of the Dead Sea Scroll known as 4QMMT, he was engaging in a creative act that entitled him to a copyright, Israel's Supreme Court ruled at the end of August. The ruling brought an end to a nearly decade-long legal saga that began when Hershel Shanks, editor of the Washington-based Biblical Archaeology Review, printed Elisha Qimron's transcription without permission or acknowledgment in a facsimile edition of the