Would Joseph have violated Ethan Smith's copyright?

[_Panopticon]

As a copyright lawyer, I found the discussion about Brant Gardner's interview on Mormon Stories interesting, particularly with regard to Grant Palmer's allegation that Joseph derived some of the concepts for the Book of Mormon from Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews. Gardner correctly argued that the Book of Mormon is not identical to Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews. I'm not sure anyone, including Grant Palmer, would argue that. The issue is whether Joseph borrowed themes, plot lines, characters, etc., from the View of the Hebrews. If the the legal standards then were similar to those today, I'm curious whether Ethan Smith could have supported a claim for copyright infringement against Joseph Smith.

I read about cases of non-literal infringement all of the time. Seldom, if ever, is the infringing work identical to the original. To prove an infringement claim, the plaintiff must establish (1) access to the original work by the accused infringer and (2) substantial similarity between the original and allegedly infringing work.

There is little doubt that Joseph Smith had access to View of the Hebrews. The book was published 7 years before the Book of Mormon. Ethan Smith lived in Poultney, Vermont, the same town as Oliver Cowdery. In fact, Ethan Smith was the pastor of the church that Cowdery's family attended from 1821 to 1826. There is also some evidence that Cowdery had a copy of View of the Hebrews. Given the close relationship between Cowdery and Joseph Smith, it is highly likely that Joseph had access to the book.

The requirement for substantial similarity is also likely satisfied. As outlined by Grant Palmer, the parallels include:

-extensive quotation from the prophecies of Isaiah in the Old Testament
-the Israelite origin of the American Indian
-the future gathering of Israel and restoration of the Ten Lost Tribes
-the peopling of the New World from the Old via a long journey northward which encountered "seas" of "many waters"
-a religious motive for the migration
-the division of the migrants into civilized and uncivilized groups with long wars between them and the eventual destruction of the civilized by the uncivilized
-the assumption that all native peoples were descended from Israelites and their languages from Hebrew
-the burial of a "lost book" with "yellow leaves"
-the description of extensive military fortifications with military observatories or "watch towers" overlooking them
-a change from monarchy to republican forms of government
-the preaching of the gospel in ancient America

Whether this would be enough from a legal perspective is debatable. However, the sheer number of parallels, along with the copying of words and phrases, such as "many waters," is good evidence that Joseph Smith used concepts from the View of the Hebrews in the Book of Mormon. Successful copyright infringement claims against authors and Hollywood movie producers have been made with less evidence.

Gardner is correct, however, that one must be careful about confirmation bias. Selecting only the parallels can make any two documents appear to be related. On the other hand, where there is the use of exactly the same language (e.g., crossing "many waters"), where a variety of words could have been used, the case for infringement is increased. Likewise, where unusual or novel concepts exist in both works, such as two groups of people (one civilized, the other uncivilized) engaging in warfare to the extinction of the civilized group or a change in forms of government in ancient America from a monarchy to a democracy), the probability that such concepts were independently developed by both authors is extremely low.

[_brade]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[_DrW]

Panopticon,

Very interesting OP.

The Jockers et al (2008) word print study suggested that Solomon Spaulding was an original author of certain sections of the Book of Mormon text. I do not recall if Ethan Smith was included in the analysis for a word print match and the Abstract to the paper provides no information about Ethan Smith specifically.

Reassessing authorship of the Book of Mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification*
Matthew L. Jockers
Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Daniela M. Witten
Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Craig S. Criddle
+ Author Affiliations

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Correspondence:
Matthew L. Jockers, Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. E-mail:
mjockers@stanford.edu

Abstract

Mormon prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) claimed that more than two-dozen ancient individuals (Nephi, Mormon, Alma, etc.) living from around 2200 BC to 421 AD authored the Book of Mormon (1830), and that he translated their inscriptions into English. Later researchers who analyzed selections from the Book of Mormon concluded that differences between selections supported Smith's claim of multiple authorship and ancient origins. We offer a new approach that employs two classification techniques: ‘delta’ commonly used to determine probable authorship and ‘nearest shrunken centroid’ (NSC), a more generally applicable classifier.

We use both methods to determine, on a chapter-by-chapter basis, the probability that each of seven potential authors wrote or contributed to the Book of Mormon. Five of the seven have known or alleged connections to the Book of Mormon, two do not, and were added as controls based on their thematic, linguistic, and historical similarity to the Book of Mormon. Our results indicate that likely nineteenth century contributors were Solomon Spalding, a writer of historical fantasies; Sidney Rigdon, an eloquent but perhaps unstable preacher; and Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher with editing experience. Our findings support the hypothesis that Rigdon was the main architect of the Book of Mormon and are consistent with historical evidence suggesting that he fabricated the book by adding theology to the unpublished writings of Spalding (then deceased). http://llc.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/4/465.abstract

Assuming that Solomon Spaulding claimed copyright for his "Manuscript xx" stories, could the word print findings, as described above, be considered as evidence in an infringement action?

If so, how strong would this evidence be as compared to what you have described for plagiarism from Ethan Smith?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[_brade]

Panopticon,

Very interesting OP.

The Jockers et al (2008) word print study suggested that Solomon Spaulding was an original author of certain sections of the Book of Mormon text. I do not recall if Ethan Smith was included in the analysis for a word print match and the Abstract to the paper provides no information about Ethan Smith specifically.

Reassessing authorship of the Book of Mormon using delta and nearest shrunken centroid classification*
Matthew L. Jockers
Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Daniela M. Witten
Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Craig S. Criddle
+ Author Affiliations

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Correspondence:
Matthew L. Jockers, Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. E-mail:
mjockers@stanford.edu

Abstract

Mormon prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) claimed that more than two-dozen ancient individuals (Nephi, Mormon, Alma, etc.) living from around 2200 BC to 421 AD authored the Book of Mormon (1830), and that he translated their inscriptions into English. Later researchers who analyzed selections from the Book of Mormon concluded that differences between selections supported Smith's claim of multiple authorship and ancient origins. We offer a new approach that employs two classification techniques: ‘delta’ commonly used to determine probable authorship and ‘nearest shrunken centroid’ (NSC), a more generally applicable classifier.

We use both methods to determine, on a chapter-by-chapter basis, the probability that each of seven potential authors wrote or contributed to the Book of Mormon. Five of the seven have known or alleged connections to the Book of Mormon, two do not, and were added as controls based on their thematic, linguistic, and historical similarity to the Book of Mormon. Our results indicate that likely nineteenth century contributors were Solomon Spalding, a writer of historical fantasies; Sidney Rigdon, an eloquent but perhaps unstable preacher; and Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher with editing experience. Our findings support the hypothesis that Rigdon was the main architect of the Book of Mormon and are consistent with historical evidence suggesting that he fabricated the book by adding theology to the unpublished writings of Spalding (then deceased). http://llc.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/4/465.abstract

Assuming that Solomon Spaulding claimed copyright for his "Manuscript xx" stories, could the word print findings, as described above, be considered as evidence in an infringement action?

If so, how strong would this evidence be as compared to what you have described for plagiarism from Ethan Smith?

Thanks in advance for your response.

I think there were some problems with the Jockers study methodology that invalidated their findings.

[_MCB]

I think there were some problems with the Jockers study methodology that invalidated their findings.

Not really. However, it will always be a questionable theory, since the original manuscript is not available. We can more easily prove borrowing from other sources which are public domain, and were public domain back then. It als makes it easier today to compile a "reference text" of possible sources. :)

Of course, Solomon Spalding was the most literate of the possible contributors (willing and unwilling). Both Matilda Spaldings (wife and daughter) claimed plagiarism, but Mormons stole and destroyed her copy (according to Spalding theorists).

[_DarkHelmet]

If a prophet cannot commit adultery, even when they do, then is it really plagiarism if a prophet does it?

[_MCB]

Any prophet like Joseph Smith, has the right to do whatever he wants. This right is granted because of religious freedom, which Trump's all other rights.

[Guest]

Brade said:

I think there were some problems with the Jockers study methodology that invalidated their findings.

I would not say that their findings were "invalidated". There were some methodological improvements that could have been made, improvements that the research team should have probably incorporated into their study.

However, while some details of their methods are being criticized, I am not aware of any studies that would invalidate the results. BYU apologists have, of course, claimed that they have found the Jokkers, et al. work to be less than credible. If this was coming from somewhere other than BYU, I might take it more seriously.

Anyone who is not a TBM, and has seen Craig Criddle's presentation on the implications and predictive power of the Jokkers study outcomes in explaining what is known and agreed about how the Book of Mormon came about, would have a hard time completely discarding the Jokkers, et al work.

[_sr1030]

One problem with this theory is that Ethan Smith, who surely would have read the Book of Mormon and saw the parallels, did not complain or even mention it that I know of. Why would this be?

sr

[_MCB]

One problem with this theory is that Ethan Smith, who surely would have read the Book of Mormon and saw the parallels, did not complain or even mention it that I know of. Why would this be?

sr

Probably because he was not opposed to the content of the Book of Mormon.