Book of Mormon copyright, author, translator

[_beastie]

I'm still curious about the copyright issue. I've been told that Joseph Smith had to state he was the author of the Book of Mormon in the first printing due to the fact that copyright laws at that time did not allow for translator. Steuss also informed me those laws changed in the 1870s, if he remembered correctly.

But by the second printing of the Book of Mormon in, IRRC, 1837, Joseph Smith listed himself as translator, not author. So what changed between 1830 and 1837?

[_karl61]

I'm still curious about the copyright issue. I've been told that Joseph Smith had to state he was the author of the Book of Mormon in the first printing due to the fact that copyright laws at that time did not allow for translator. Steuss also informed me those laws changed in the 1870s, if he remembered correctly.

But by the second printing of the Book of Mormon in, IRRC, 1837, Joseph Smith listed himself as translator, not author. So what changed between 1830 and 1837?

If I recall correctly the first printing has him as author and proprietor and the second printing has him as author and translator.

[_beastie]

If I recall correctly the first printing has him as author and proprietor and the second printing has him as author and translator.

So why couldn't he say that the first time?