PART 2 CHRISTIANS AND THE COP
(72) 04 Jan 92 14:45:00
By: Jack Decker
To: All
Re: PART 2 – CHRISTIANS AND THE COPYRIGHT LAW St:
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[Continued from previous message]
The first objection is easily answered if we consider the amount of actual effort that is put into writing a song or sermon compared to the possible returns that can be extorted through the use of the copyright. Many songwriters or sermon writers can complete a work in a day or two (especially if the Lord really gave them the work, as is often claimed) and rarely does it take more than a week or two. How much do you make working a week or two at your job? Yet that work may net the writer multiple thousands of dollars in copyright-imposed royalties, thus forcing people to pay much more than the value of the time involved. And the point remains that if God truly inspired the work, authorship belongs to God and the earthly vessel that he uses should be trusting God, not the copyright law, to supply his needs (it should also be pointed out that the phrase “the laborer is worthy of his hire” was used by Paul, who was talking about the “elders that rule well … especially those who labor in the word and doctrine”. See I Timothy 5:17-18. But that did not mean that they were to charge admission to their sermons! Rather, it meant that they were worthy to receive whatever offerings the people might be led to give them).
Of course, God may assist a writer with a book or some other work that requires lengthy preparation and possibly a real expenditure of money for research. In that case I would say it is between God and that man whether to copyright the book or other work, but I think that if the work is truly one that will be helpful to God’s people, it would be better to leave it uncopyrighted. It would be better to offer such a work on a free will or a donation basis and let God take care that the author receives just compensation. But for someone whose faith is weak (that somehow cannot fully trust God to take care that they are not “cheated”), I cannot with full conviction say that it is a sin for them to copyright their book.
I can’t see the original authors of the books of the Bible copyrighting and charging others for what they wrote. But I can’t see Paul giving away all of the tents that he made, either. Some say that all ideas originate from God, and the work of our hands is the only thing we are entitled to be compensated for. This, again, brings us back to the question of how much research or other real “work” was required to produce the work in question, and whether we are willing to trust God, rather than man, to see that we are compensated properly for that work.
As for the thought that the work may be “stolen” by a non-Christian, such an argument betrays a lack of trust in God. If the work is used in its original form, it may reach people who would not see or hear it otherwise and inspire them to turn to God – and the fact that anyone can use it without making royalty payments may assure it a much wider distribution than it would otherwise have. And if the work is perverted by someone, God is powerful and is able to handle the situation! It may be that God has a reason for allowing that to happen, and it may be that God will use that work to draw the wrongdoer to Him. But if there is any punishment to be meted out, remember that God says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
But probably the best reason for not using copyright protection is that it may put the copyright owner into the position of violating God’s law. You see, in order to retain copyright protection, a copyright owner has to enforce it against any known violators or the protection is lost. What that means is that if a violation is discovered, the violator must be forced to pay for the infringement, or be sued in court to recover actual and punitive damages. Now, what happens if the violator is a Christian, but either cannot or will not pay up? You have to take him to a court of law, before worldly judges. This is very strongly and specifically prohibited in I Corinthians 6, verses 1-8. These verses should be required reading for any Christian that is considering the use of Copyright protection.
The only case in which I would say that it MAY be all right for a Christian to obtain copyright protection (and I’m not even fully convinced of this in my own mind) is when that work in question is intended for the secular market (i.e. non-Christians) and is not a Christian work (for example, if a Christian writes a book about how to build a backyard barbeque, it would probably be okay to copyright it). The reason for this is that the most likely violators would be worldly people. However, even in this case, the question remains of what to do if a copyright violator professes to be a Christian. You’d have to trust God for wisdom at that time, because there’s simply no way you can justify violating God’s law to satisfy man’s.
As I have said, I doubt that you’ll hear this preached from many pulpits, especially in light of the “success syndrome” that has crept into many churches (the book “The Seduction of Christianity” by Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon does a good job of exposing this heresy). And you won’t see many books published on the subject, since it would not be in the self-interest of many publishers to do so. I’d love to see a book publisher decide to really trust God for their income, and release some books without copyright notices! And the Christian music industry will probably continue to send Judases into our midst, hoping to catch us in copyright violations and then forcing us to take God’s money, which was given in tithes and offerings, and use it to pay them and the courts for their evil deeds. It’s about time that some Christian songwriters said “enough!” to this and started placing some of their music in the public domain, so that it could be freely used by God’s people to praise Him.
I’d like to hear any comments that others may have on this subject, pro or con, or any scriptures that the Lord may give you that seem to be applicable to this discussion. Please feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts.
As you might expect, THIS article is released to the public domain for the Glory of God, and may be freely reprinted!
Jack Decker
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