Translation Methodology & Copyright Integrity

This document records how every translation published by DailyGod is produced, why the project exists, and the safeguards that keep its texts free of copyright infringement. Our method is “clean-room”: each translation is created independently from public-domain sources only, and never from any copyrighted translation.

In most languages, the modern Bible translations people use every day are under copyright, which places Scripture behind permission walls and licensing fees. Daily Agora exists to restore open access — to provide free, openly-licensed translations that anyone may read, copy, share, and build upon. We began with languages that lacked a usable open option, and we continue, one language at a time.

“Clean-room” means a work is created from scratch using only sources that are free to use, with no exposure to the protected work one might be accused of copying. Every DailyGod translation is produced this way. We translate only from: (1) the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), released into the public domain under CC0; and (2) the original-language Hebrew and Greek, which are themselves public domain. We do not open, consult, quote, adapt, or derive from any copyrighted translation — in any language — at any stage. From the very outset, no copyrighted Korean Bible (or any other) was ever used as a source.

Copyright in a Bible translation protects the translator's creative expression — distinctive word choices, phrasing, and sentence structure. It does not protect the underlying meaning or ideas, the facts of the text, or the original-language Scripture, all of which are free to everyone. A translation produced independently from public-domain sources is therefore non-infringing, even though any two faithful translations will unavoidably share unprotectable elements such as proper nouns and short, common, obvious phrases.

Each verse follows the same path: (1) the public-domain source text is presented to the translator; (2) it is rendered, meaning-based, into the target language; (3) the verse's provenance — clean-room from the BSB — is recorded with it; (4) verified pastors and scholars review and refine it in Daily Agora, with every revision kept on record; (5) the text is screened by our automated copyright audit; (6) any flagged verse is reviewed by a person and, if needed, re-translated; (7) the approved text is published with its license and attribution.

Two independent layers protect the work. First, open peer review: verified contributors propose and refine each verse with their reasons, and a complete revision history is preserved — not one voice's authority, but a community's scrutiny. Second, an automated copyright audit: it measures the textual overlap of each verse against reference translations and flags any verse whose wording is closer to a copyrighted text than to public-domain texts, routing it to human review and re-translation. High overlap is a signal for human judgment, never an automatic verdict.

For every verse we retain its source, its translator or contributor, and its full revision history. This record is auditable, so the origin of any text can be traced and verified at any time.

Source: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). DailyGod's translations (the “Daily Versions”, including the Korean Daily Version, KDV) are © DailyGod and are licensed for free use, copying, and distribution — including commercially — with attribution, e.g. “Korean Daily Version (KDV) — DailyGod”. DailyGod™, KDV™, and Daily Agora™ are marks of the project. This document sets out our methodology and good-faith legal position; it is not legal advice and creates no rights in any third party. In case of any discrepancy between language versions of this document, the English version governs.

We take copyright seriously. If any rights holder believes a passage reflects the protected expression of their work, please contact us at [email protected]. We will review the matter promptly and, where a legitimate concern is found, revise or remove the passage in good faith.