The
Intellectual Property Rights of FUUCI Authors
SYNOPSIS:
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of the
Internet
is an independent UU organization existing only in cyber-space.
It operates completely without money.
No money is ever collected.
No money is ever distributed.
Everyone involved is a pure volunteer.
This includes, most importantly,
the individuals who propose and write cyber-sermons for FUUCI.
Some of these are regular clergy-persons employed by other UU
organizations
—such
as local UU congregations.
When the same sermons are also offered to FUUCI,
the intellectual effort has already been paid for
by means of the regular salary that the UU minister has received
from the congregation that employs him or her.
OUTLINE:
1.
CREATION FOR HIRE
2.
NON-EXCLUSIVE USE GRANTED TO FUUCI
3.
BENEFITS TO THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER
4. MANY UU MINISTERS GIVE THEIR SERMONS AWAY
The
Intellectual Property Rights of FUUCI Authors
by
James Leonard Park
1. CREATION FOR HIRE
Almost all local UU congregations grant copyright to
their ministers,
even tho under copyright law,
the congregation could claim to be the owner of the sermons.
This means that the original creator of the sermon
can continue to use the sermons in any ways that seem right to him or
her.
And the right to control this intellectual property
extends to 70 years after the death of the author.
(Then it comes into the public domain,
which means that anyone may use the ideas from that time forth
without asking the permission of the original author or paying any
royalties.)
Unitarian Universalist congregations would have
excellent legal bases
for claiming that the
congregations themselves own the sermons they
paid to be created.
Under copyright law, this arrangement is called "creation for hire".
The author agrees with another individual or organization
to produce a certain kind of intellectual property.
The contract specifies when and how the creative product will be
delivered.
And the contract specifies exactly how the owner of the intellectual
property
will pay the creator for the time and effort involved in making the
work.
In the typical context of employment for UU
ministers,
the minister receives a regular salary
with the understanding that he or she will produce sermons on an
agreed-upon basis.
The minister is an employee of the congregation,
under contract to create acceptable sermons for that congregation.
Since the congregation is paying for this
intellectual production,
under copyright law, the congregation could file the works created
as permanent intellectual property belonging to the congregation.
But, as already noted, almost no congregations make
such claims.
They allow the minister himself or herself to retain all ownership
of the intellectual property known as sermons.
Frequently the contract for employment of the UU ministers
explicitly says that the ownership of the sermons
remains with the minister who created them.
The sermons do not become the
property of the congregation.
2. NON-EXCLUSIVE USE GRANTED
TO FUUCI
When the copyright-holder grants permission
for FUUCI to publish his or her sermon,
this is a non-exclusive world right to distribute the sermon,
without earning any payment of any kind from anyone.
The copyright remains with the original creator.
That author is free to use the sermon in any other way
after it has been selected and published by FUUCI.
For example, the author might later decide to use
the same sermon
(or some modification of it) as a chapter in a book.
And this book could be copyrighted without complications.
The fact that the ideas were already shared by means of FUUCI
does not limit any future legal use by the author.
And because the copyright remains with the original
author,
FUUCI cannot put the cyber-sermon into a book without
additional permission of the person or congregations that owns the
copyright.
3. BENEFITS TO THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER
Even tho there is no payment to authors of
cyber-sermons from FUUCI,
the world-wide sharing of the ideas of FUUCI authors
could lead to some indirect economic benefit to them.
For example, if the author of a selected cyber-sermon
is looking for a job as a UU minister,
the fact that some of his or her sermons
have been selected by the membership of FUUCI
could be used in the application for employment.
If the authors of UU sermons have already published
other written works,
these can be mentioned in the author identification
at the end of the published cyber-sermon.
Readers who have been impressed by the FUUCI sermon
might want to read further in the thought of this particular person.
And because FUUCI authors retain copyright for their
cyber-sermons,
they could publish them later in some other format.
For example, nothing prevents them from including the same sermon
in a printed collection of sermons at some later time.
And the fact that one or two of the sermons was also used by FUUCI
should enhance the
prospects for the collection of sermons
rather than reduce the prospects
because one or two sermons has already appeared in another format.
However, readers will benefit most:
Readers will have their lives enriched because they spend these few
minutes
reading a cyber-sermon offered by FUUCI.
If the author wants to have some specific impact on the minds of others,
then a cyber-sermon might be a way of achieving that goal,
even if there is no immediate cash reward for the intellectual labor.
4. MANY UU MINISTERS GIVE
THEIR SERMONS AWAY
While we must all acknowledge the need to earn a
living in some form,
when UU ministers have been employed to create original sermons
for particular UU congregations,
they often thereafter publish their sermons (or selected sermons)
on the websites of their congregations.
Sometimes UU ministers have their own private website,
where they are free to publish anything that belongs to them.
Other UU ministers use blogs as a way of sharing their sermons with the
world.
Anyone who owns a copyright also has a right to give
that intellectual property away,
either with restrictions about its future use or without any
restrictions.
Living authors can put some or all of their works into the public
domain.
When UU authors authorize the publication of
specific cyber-sermons by FUUCI,
they are granting only this one-time permission.
They can give or sell their rights again and again for as long as they
live.
And while still alive, they can decide
what will happen to their intellectual property after they die.
As said before, copyright extends 70 years after the death of the
author.
But because of the nature of sharing on the Internet,
it is not technically possible to delete ideas that have already been
shared.
AUTHOR:
James Leonard Park is the volunteer webmaster for
FUUCI.
He is also the author of about 15 books,
most of which are copyrighted and sold.
(Some of these are also published free of charge on the Internet.)
Created
May 18, 2012; Revised 5-20-2012; 5-26-2012; 5-1-2013
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