A derivative work is a work based on or derived from one or more already exist ing works. Common derivative works include translations, musical arrange ments, motion picture versions of literary material or plays, art reproductions abridgments, and condensations of preexisting works. Another common typ of derivative work is a “new edition” of a preexisting work in which the edito rial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as whole, an original work. To be copyrightable, a derivative work must incorporate some or all of a preexisting “work” and add new original copyrightable authorship to that work.
https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf
The law requires that each new version be “different enough” from previous versions to be consider a new work. Thus when a reader reads a modern translation that is bound by this law, he must second-guess whether the words he is reading are in fact the most accurate or whether they are less accurate substitutes made to qualify the translation as a copyrightable work.
When a reader reads the KJV, he can be confident that the translators chose the words they did because they truly believed that the words they chose were the most accurate. Fifteen rules were given for translating the KJV, and some of them explicitly allowed the translators to retain existing renderings that could not have been improved upon.
- Rule 1 urged the translators to follow the Bishop’s Bible with the liberty to depart from it if the original language text so allowed.
- Rule 14 allowed the translators to follow other good translations where they appeared to agree better with the original languages.
Such an attitude of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” would be impossible today with our current laws for derivative works that require change for the sake of change.
The King James’s copyright is only legally binding in the UK, this preserves the text. It can be printed by anyone outside the UK. The KJV is so loved and studied that if anyone made any changes alarm bells would be going off in days. The modern translations are changed all the time with hardly any notice.