Copyrights

2005-12-3 08:02:00

Woody:

I have a question for JJ. I was going to email him directly, but I noticed that this question has a lot of public repercussions, so I thought posting it here would be best.

I'm getting my book on Zion together here and I want to include a CDROM of DK's stuff, HPB and other stuff, but I really wanted to include a complete copy of your "Molecular Relationship" on it. While I quote you and use much of the material in the MR in this book, I wanted to include the whole thing as a supporting resource on the CD.

DK's material is copyright by Lucis Trust and you would need permission from them to quote more than a paragraph or two.

I'm not sure if the Theosophical Society has kept up the copyright on HPB's materials or not. It may be in public domain, but one would want to check before duplicating any of her works.

Copyright law allows for "fair use" of any copyrighted material. What thus means is you can take short quotes from a copyrighted material and use them if you give proper credit. You are allowed quotes necessary to make your point, but in any case it should not exceed a couple paragraphs in any particular section of the book.

Certain writings are not subject to copyright such as scriptures. You can duplicate the King James Version all you want, or the Mormon scriptures. A New translation of the Bible is always copyright though. This allows the translators to recoup their expenses in producing a unique version.

Because A Course in Miracles at first claimed their work was scripture, the words of Jesus, and the copyrighted it they had a problem keeping the copyright.

Books on philosophy and scripture are like any other book and subject to copyright laws.

If you go to certain sites that have a lot of free downloads you'll notice that most of them are older writings. If a copyright has expired and no one renews it then it is in public domain and anyone can reproduce them. For instance, anyone can publish Shakespeare's works, but if someone writes a new commentary on him then it can be copyrighted.

None of my works are scripture or claim to be. There is no "thus saith the Lord," or words claiming to be from Jesus type of thing. All my works are all copyrighted a short time after writing. Even though they are copyright I have still placed many on the web where they can be read for free, including The Molecular Relationship.

This is as far as I want to go at present. If anyone wants to direct anyone to the book they can reference the site Larry keeps for us and they can read it free of charge.

I have already given permission for anyone who desires to duplicate the first Immortal book with the condition they give credit to the author and do not offer it for sale.

In addition let me remind the group that we will send you all the free copies of The Immortal, Book I that you think you can give out to your friends. We may require some postage from those living outside the U.S., but we even pay postage with in country.

I don't have any current plans at present to give my writings to public domain. I'll probably go the route of Lucis Trust where the sale of the books help finance the work.

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.  James Thurber (1894 - 1961)