The Copyright

2004-10-9 16:12:00

Steve
It seems to me that it is a foolish idea to start copyrighting every word we speak. I mean, what you say could be true for any one of us right? Any one of us could come out with a great parable or make a wonderful new quote up, perhaps we should all be copyrighting our material then?

JJ:
I've covered this a number of times. It amazes me that anyone would question the wisdom of copyrighting a work - as if Jesus or someone from on high would be offended.

I do not copyright every word I speak. I copyright everything that I plan on publishing. Yes, if you write something of worth it only makes sense to copyright it, especially if you want to publish it - otherwise someone could steal it from you, copyright it and sue you if you publish your own material.

Steve:
It seems to me that if we are in tune with Spirit and so Spiritual Truth, that it will be the words of Spirit that we speak and not our own. And who can claim ownership over Spirit?

JJ:
All the more reason to copyright it to protect it from someone of evil intent from suppressing it.

Steve:
Can you imagine Buddha or Jesus, or any other Saint or Master copyrighting everything he says for fear someone else might plagiarize it and use it themselves? I think not. For if they had such little faith and such an earthly focus, they would never have been a Saints/Masters to begin with.

JJ:
If Jesus or Buddha were here today I'm sure they would copyright their material.

The Christ commissioned DK to write the words of the Hierarchy and they are copyrighted.

Steve:
So having faith as we do then, can't we let go of our need to control reality, and manipulate it towards our own best interests, even on the subtlest of levels? To place a copyright onto words is to give them a value, when this is only a false value. For the real value of what one shares with others comes from God and is given to man by grace, and if it should be stolen or used by another, then we can rely on Spirit to give us countless new and creative ways to re- express the same truth again.

JJ:
Tell me of a successful teacher who doesn't copyright his material? There is none. If you publish you have to copyright. The distributors will not touch your material if it is not copyrighted, otherwise they could face lawsuits.

Steve:
Now I know what you might be thinking. This new guy joins and picks up on something as seemingly trivial as JJ copyrighting his forum posts, and that to compare this to these insane corporations is unfair. But the point I'm making here is that these dynamics of claiming ownership of things have their roots in the very same dark consciousness. Such consciousness bears the hallmarks of selfishness and greed, and these seeds, no matter how small, grow and turn into the evil we see manifesting in our world today.

JJ:
You're right, I do think this is an extremely trivial point and criticism, especially for anyone who is in the real world and familiar with publishing.

I have had some of my work stolen in the past and copyright by another so I can not now use my own material. It is indeed insane to not copyright material you plan to publish, especially if it is of worth and in need of distribution.

Now if you just want to post something on line and let it go into the ethers with no intent on printing it and making it available to the public then no copyright is necessary.