Sefaria is building a free, living library of Jewish texts and their interconnections, in Hebrew and in translation. As part of our commitment to making text available in Hebrew and English we have imported public domain translations, and allowed users to create crowd-sourced translations, but that’s not the only avenue we have been pursuing. We are also actively working with authors and publishers to release texts from copyright restrictions, making them free for use and reuse via Sefaria.
Today Sefaria is pleased to announce a first-of-it’s-kind deal. Urim Publications has agreed to release one of their books from copyright restrictions via the Creative Commons CC0 <http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0> license (making it free for use and reuse in any way). Urim has released Mikraot Gedolot Hachut Hameshulash <http://www.urimpublications.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UP&Product_Code=chut> by Eliyahu Munk under the CC0 license, and the content is already being added to the Sefaria website. The book contains English translations of major Torah commentaries written by four medieval rabbis: Seforno <http://www.sefaria.org/Sforno_on_Exodus>, Rashbam <http://www.sefaria.org/Rashbam_on_Exodus>, Radak <http://www.sefaria.org/Radak_on_Genesis>, and Rabeinu Chananel <http://www.sefaria.org/Rabbeinu_Chananel_on_Exodus>, all expertly rendered by Eliyahu Munk. The Sefaria team has been in touch with several intellectual property experts and as far as any of them know, this is the first time a copyright owner has released a book from restrictive use in exchange for payment from a third party. We here at Sefaria are thrilled to be that third party, and we think this demonstrates one of our core tenets. Sefaria is not in business for itself. We did not buy the rights to this book for our website. We are a non-profit dedicated to making Jewish education possible in new ways, so we have made sure that as many people as possible can explore and study these important commentaries. Full announcement here: blog.sefaria.org/post/110752195450/sefaria-and-urim-publications-strike-unprecedented -- Ari Elias-Bachrach Content Director, The Sefaria Project [email protected] (202) 210-5187 072-224-2952 www.sefaria.org
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