Book of Mormon. Copyrighted.
p2pnet news view | Cool:- In the interests of maintaining, if not enhancing their bottom lines, and at a cost of millions of dollars, the music and movie industries have turned copyright — hitherto a matter of purely commercial interest — into the central point of an international battle.
And now the Copyright Wars have entered interesting new dimentions.
“They said that Joseph Smith had a faulty revelation in 1830,” says the Mormon Times “They said the revelation proclaimed that the copyright to the Book of Mormon would be sold in Canada. They said the revelation was a failure and that Joseph was a fallen prophet. And, best of all, there was no copy of the revelation for anybody to check against their story.”
It goes on, “This all changed on Sept. 22 with the publication of the latest volume of the Joseph Smith Papers: ‘Revelations and Translations: Manuscript Revelation Books.’ For more than 160 years, there was only one side of the story.”
But now a, “Text of revelation about securing Book of Mormon copyright” has turned up, it says a second Mormon Times post, giving chapter and verse on a “revelation given to Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight,” including »»»
And I have covenanted with my servant Joseph, that earth nor hell combined against him shall not take the blessing out of his hands; which I have prepared for him, if he walketh uprightly before me — neither the spiritual nor the temporal blessing;
And behold I also covenanted with those who have assisted him in my work that I will do unto them even the same, because they have done that which is pleasing in my sight (yea even all, save it be one* only).
Wherefore be diligent in securing the copyright of my work upon all the face of the earth of which is known by you, unto my servant Joseph, and unto him whom he willeth, according as I shall command him;
That the faithful and the righteous may retain the temporal blessing as well as the spiritual,
And also that my work be not destroyed by the workers of iniquity to their own destruction and damnation when they are fully ripe.
And now, behold I say unto you, that I have covenanted and it pleaseth me that Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Knight, Hiram Page, and Josiah Stowell shall do my work in this thing, yea, even in securing the copyright;
And they shall do it with an eye single to my glory, that it may be the means of bringing souls unto salvation through mine Only Begotten.
Behold I am God. I have spoken it.
Wherefore, I say unto you that ye shall go to Kingston,** seeking me continually through mine Only Begotten, and if ye do this ye shall have my spirit to go with you and ye shall have an addition of all things which is expedient in me. (Amen.)***
And I grant unto my servant a privilege that he may sell a copyright through you — speaking after the manner of men — for the four provinces if the people harden not their hearts against the enticings of my spirit and my word;
For behold, it lieth in themselves to their condemnation or to their salvation.
Behold my way is before you, and the means I will prepare, and the blessing I hold in mine own hand, and if ye are faithful, I will pour out upon you even as much as ye are able to bear, and thus it shall be.
Now you know.
Mormon Times – Newly found revelation of Joseph Smith, October 16, 2009
Mormon Times – Text of revelation about securing Book of Mormon copyright, October 16, 2009
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October 17th, 2009 at 11:41 am
god enforcing copyright on his words? Ahm… don’t he get paid on sundays when they pass that collection plate around? methinks there’s a sly middleman afoot here.
October 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Ah! The book of the morons!
Stupidity is copyrighted too I suppose!
If GOD EXIST then the entire universe we can see and not see is copyrighted by god.
If it is the case then any copyright claim is invalid and no one can BREATH without owing a license fee to god.
SORRY! Bad news!
October 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Its my own belief that given the date of these “revelations” they are now in the public domain that is unless gods words where ignored and the faithful didnt follow up gods messages, wonder which case applies here ?
October 18th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
When God said “Go forth and multiply” he was sublicensing his copyright…
October 18th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
given that we mormons give out this book like it’s going out of style and charge nothing for it, i dare say they’re not looking to milk the copyright for profit. call us up and ask for one. we’ll send guys out to your house to deliver it at no cost. those same people will be more than happy to answer any other questions you might have about it.
as to why the copyright was important TWO HUNDRED years ago… i believe that anyone who has ever sat through a history class will admit that the world was a different place back then. to that end, this book, which we deem to be sacred on par with the Bible, needed to be protected from detractors. if you do a little research on the origins of us mormons, you’ll find that our beginnings weren’t paved with rose petals. things were difficult and a lot of people hated us… oh wait, they still do… anyway, the copyright was most likely obtained as a way to secure the revelation against detractors re-printing the book with alterations in an effort to further discredit the early saints.
again, since you can get the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants and Bible from us COMPLETELY FREE, i think you’ll find that allegations of profiteering are false. the copyright merely stands in an effort to prevent confusion. imagine what would happen if i disagreed with the laws of physics so i changed some Ph.D.’s textbook… i could mess up a lot of people’s education. we don’t expect everyone to believe the same way we do but we DO expect the same respect you’d give any other religion (or non-religion for any atheists out there). that principle is listed in the 13 Articles of Faith, our core tenants.
please don’t mock my beliefs, i’m not mocking yours.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
“Ah! The book of the morons”
Sorry!
The “moron” was not for the religion but for the copyright part of it.
Although I don’t believe ever that this is for profit, I still believe that this is unnecessary.
The Mormon Church with it’s unquestionable sincerity is not like the David Miscavidge’s cult of Scientology and should not give people the feeling that it might be.
None of the others major religion try to protect their books with copyright claim. They are all public domain. So must be and remain the book of the Mormons unless you want people to forget about it.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I dont recognise any copyright on this work and could today print my own version as copyrights are for a limited time not forever (I’m posting from the UK), and it may well be fine and dandy to say I can have a copy but say I wanted to examine the work in a critical way for scriptural flaws and some lawyer flew out of the woodwork and said I cant use large selected segments to back my research ?
Copyrights dont last forever and neither does ignorance, if your truly worried about anyone spreading a “false word” get the entire text up on a website and then folks can read it for themselves and make their life choices acordingly, is this not common sense ?
October 20th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Hi, Quartz! Thanks for the common sense tip, but we do have it online, actually — along with the Bible and our other books of scripture! Feel free to check it out at http://scriptures.lds.org/ — but no pressure. Not looking to force my religion down anyone’s throat! Just hoping to shed some light on the subject. Have a lovely day.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I,m sure the method you have chosen here to reply to non-mormons is appreciated, my thanks for the link, I will take a peek despite being a dyed in the wool religous sceptic.