The Times of London’s inaccurate report about the Vatican’s new policies on copyrighting Pope Benedict’s writings is beginning to spread. It was in the Boston Herald this morning, and in The Australian as well. (Here’s a link to the Google News page showing a whole bunch of related links.)
All of the stories characterize this as a money grab by the Pope and the Vatican. And they’re all wrong. The fact is that Father Joseph Fessio and Mark Brumley of Ignatius Press were both at the meeting at the Vatican last month of all the publishers of the Pope’s writings and they say this is hogwash.
Here’s what’s happening. The Vatican wants to assert some control over the publication of papal writings to prevent abuses and inaccuracies. Mark Brumley gave me the example that last summer a German or Italian publishing put together an unauthorized compendium of all the Pope’s speeches given at World Youth Day in Cologne. However, what they published was not what the Pope said. They published the prepared texts when, as well know, the Pope has a tendency to extemporize and re-write on the fly, so the speeches and homilies that were actually heard differed markedly from what this company published. Despite repeated requests of the Vatican, this company would not correct the error.
So this is the Vatican’s attempt to get a handle on shoddy translations, badly compiled works, and even leaked documents. Will they be able to do so worldwide? I think it will be like trying to wrestle a bowl of Jello, but they’re trying.
But this is definitely not about money. Already several people have approached the Vatican about publishing or re-publishing older works by Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, and all of those requests have been approved without a single request for royalties. Unlike the USCCBureaucracy, this isn’t moneygrubbing a few bucks off Church documents, but about protecting the integrity of those documents.
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If protecting the integrity is the primary concern, this seems like about the worst way to go about it.
This amounts to a gag order. If journalists want to cite what the Pope has said, they now have no choice but to paraphrase. We both know where paraphrasing leads. The cause of accuracy is much better served by free permission to use.
You are absolutely right, I had the same reaction when this story made the rounds a couple days ago.
The Vatican is doing this to crackdown on the “advance leaks” of papal documents (like the new encyclical – which hadn’t received its final literary and doctrinal polish) and also to have some consequences in place for publishers that misrepresent the Pope’s words.
I just finished blogging about an article in CWNews today which clarifies this issue and also reports on the sitation with La Stampa – the chief offender and the Italian daily that received the LEV’s fine.
I’m very glad the Vatican is doing this.
Not long ago in St. Blogs there was a discussion on one of the blogs about the Vatican strategy to leak documents in order to find out what the reaction will be, so that any final tweaking necessary before the official release can be taken care of. Now we are being told that those leaks are going to be silenced with lawsuits? This is logical?
Carrie,
The rules of fair use, especially with regard to journalism, permit quoting and excerpting of copyrighted works in newsreporting.
And there is a difference between what is done unofficially and official policy. These people aren’t always the same. Like any large bureaucracy the right hand doesn’t always know what the left hand is doing.
Well, to be fair, a commenter in my blog pointed out that I had misread “lines” to be “words”, and quoting 30 lines is not as restrictive as quoting 30 words, so I will have to modify my outrage somewhat.
That doesn’t, however, make the concern about paraphrasing go away. It doesn’t make the spectre of Catholic journalists being sued by the Pope go away either. What a concept!
Also we shouldn’t take for granted that American copyright laws will apply to Vatican-issued documents considering that the Vatican is a sovereign state and not subject to American laws. And probably what is most critical for me, personally, is where does that leave blogs, especially when they are not commercial endeavors?
The bottom line is you don’t need to worry. Copyright exists regardless of enforcement; it’s the assertion of the right that makes the difference. In other words, you automatically own the copyright to everything you create, but you have to actually assert your rights. What the Vatican is saying is that it will assert those rights where necessary.
Practically speaking, it’s status quo in almost every case you cite.
Carrie,
What was being done before wasn’t logical. The Church does not base her decisions on polls. This is fine what is happening now. As soon as word gets around & it’s finally believed that leaks are phony, then we’ll get to read the whole thing as it was intended to be read.
Bravo for Pope Benedict XVI.