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By Kent Larsen
Mormon Website Criticized For Copyright Violations
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- An LDS-oriented website is flirting with copyright
violations that may cause it legal trouble, and seriously jeopardize its
existence because the violations seem to make up the majority of the
website. All About Mormons (http://www.mormons.org/ may be the
LDS-oriented website most at risk for copyright violations, and industry
sources are betting that the site will eventually be required to remove the
violating material.
LDS Church member John Walsh says on the website that he started All About
Mormons because he saw a need for orthodox, reliable information about the
LDS Church's doctrines and practices. Walsh gathered what he considers
authoritative information, organized it by subject, and posted it on the
Internet. But most of the material he posted consists of entire articles
from the nationally published "Encyclopedia of Mormonism." The website also
contains the complete text of all General Conference addresses from October
1996 to April 2000 and many images from LDS Church-owned publications.
And the site has become fairly successful, establishing itself as a resource
for information about the LDS Church. It is listed in many search engines
and Internet directories, and has even appeared as a resource along side
news articles about the LDS Church, such as a recent article in U.S. News
and World Report (see US News Puts LDS Church on Cover http://www.mormonstoday.com/001110/N1USNews01.shtml ).
Normally, using an article from an encyclopedia requires the permission of
the publisher, who generally holds an exclusive license to publish the
material. But finding the publisher isn't always easy. While the 1992
Encyclopedia of Mormonism was published by Macmillan, a company that no
longer exists, the rights are now owned by the Gale Group, which sold an
exclusive license to the "electronic rights" to the encyclopedia to LDS
CD-ROM publisher Infobases, which is now part of Deseret Book. Contacted by
Mormon News, Deseret Book has verified that it owns these electronic rights
and did not know that All About Mormons had posted the text to its website.
Walsh admits on his website that he is using some of the material on the
website without permission from the author. Contacted by Mormon News, Walsh
would not respond to a query asking if he had a license to use either the
Encyclopedia of Mormonism material or the talks from the LDS Church's
General Conference. Instead, he referred Mormon News to a page on his
website that talks about his use of copyrighted material (see http://www.mormons.org/about.htm#information ). There he says he used the material "with the
assumption that the author would not mind or be offended." The page also
acknowledges that other users of his site have questioned his use of the
copyrighted material. In response, he tells a story about contacting BYU's
Robert L. Millett, Dean of Religious Education about a copyright violation,
only to find Millet unconcerned about illicit use of his work. Walsh goes on
to say, "Since most of the articles we use are from faithful Latter-day
Saints, we have never been too concerned about obtaining written permission
to use some material."
But Walsh's explanation doesn't wash with other LDS website developers.
Dallas Robbins, editor of the on-line LDS magazine Harvest Magazine http://www.harvestmagazine.com/
calls Walsh's explanation for using copyrighted material "sincere, though
naive." "Just because Dr. Robert Millet says it was fine that a recorded
talk he gave was distributed without his knowledge, does not give the owners
of mormons.org the to right to reprint anything they please, just because it
furthers the gospel cause." Robbins says that Walsh's use isn't really fair
to authors, "A person spends hard work and time to create a piece of written
work; we just can't take advantage of people's time and sacrifice without
compensating them." He is also disturbed by the implication that Walsh
thinks it OK to take advantage of fellow LDS Church members, "[if] they are
faithful LDS Church members, [All About Mormons] should even take more time
and effort in following the legal and lawful standards in copyright
permission," says Robbins.
Another LDS webmaster, Alan Jones, is much more blunt about Walsh's use of
the material. " . . . what that website has done is not legal nor moral."
Jones says he has a fairly good understanding of copyright law because he
just helped roll-out a new copyright and confidentiality policy for his
company. One of his worries with the abuse of Church materials is that
anti-Mormons will get ahold of the material and use it for their own ends.
He claims that well-meaning church members posted the LDS Church's General
Handbook of Instructions to the Internet, and the anti-Mormon Utah
Lighthouse Ministry obtained it. The LDS Church had to file a lawsuit to get
the material removed from their site.
The experience of others indicates that both Deseret Book and the LDS Church
are likely to act on Walsh's use of the material, now that they know about
it. In addition to filing a lawsuit against the Utah Lighthouse Ministry
over their posting the General Handbook of Instructions, the Church also
asked LDS Church member Mark Davies to remove his archive of General
Conference talks from the Internet in December 1997, once the Church learned
of its existence. Dallas Robbins of Harvest Magazine knows Deseret Book
expects to be paid for the use of its material. He contacted the LDS
Church-owned publisher recently about reprinting a chapter from one of its
books, and was told that he would need to pay a monthly fee of $150 for the
privilege.
Deseret Book declined to say what they will do about the use of its
materials on Walsh's website, and LDS Church spokesman Randy Ripplinger told
Mormon News, "Publishing copyrighted materials is the right of the copyright
owner. The Church does not give others the right to choose how Church owned
materials are published."
Robbins of Harvest Magazine worries that All About Mormons' use of the
copyrighted material will make it more difficult for him and other
webmasters to follow the rules. "I have seen many sites republish much
material in such a manner. It only makes it harder for me, someone trying to
play by the rules; while others sites don't follow the rules, it gives them
the liberty to provide more content and thus creating more traffic. It makes
me feel somewhat left out; but of course I would only want to have a site
built on honesty and full author participation whenever possible." He says
that Walsh should not only take the material down, but also pay for its
illicit use, "All About Mormons should pay for what they have reprinted up
to this point, - making a restitution, and secure proper copyright before
continuing any further reprinting."
But Chris Bigelow, an editor of Irreantum, a magazine covering Mormon
literature, disagrees. He can see the LDS Church choosing to ignore All
About Mormons. "One of the guiding principles at the Church Headquarters is,
'We may permit it, but we don't promote it.' In other words, tolerate the
activity but avoid any implication of 'Go and do thou likewise.' That
principle would seem to apply in this case." He says that the number of
sites using Church material is already too large to stop, "I think that
would be like putting a finger in a dike that is leaking in numerous other
places."
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