The Paratext Board of Governors wishes to make Paratext available to all Bible translators with as few restrictions as possible. In the past, there were complaints about the difficulty of obtaining licenses for Paratext. The new registration system starting with Paratext 8 has been designed to decentralize the process of obtaining licenses. Now the approval process is managed by more than 250 organizations, each for their own personnel. Organizations and church groups are being added all the time by filling out a simple form found on this site’s registration information page. Here is how it works:
Any organization may request to become a Paratext Organization. There are two criteria:
- They must agree to follow the standards for Bible translation set forth by the Forum of Bible Agencies International. This is a checkbox on the form.
- They must abide by the Paratext Terms of Use, in the section entitled Global Principles. Although this is not made explicit on the organization registration form, it is in the confirmation email that is sent when the registration is received.
If any Bible translator does not have access to Paratext and its excellent set of resources for translators today, it is probably because they have not registered their organization. In the rare case that a request is rejected, it is most often because the group is not involved in Bible translation. The only other cases of rejection are where they claim not to comply with FOBAI translation standards or have violated the Paratext Terms of Use in some way.