Documents of Interest to Urantians
About 10 years ago, my beloved Eric and I attended the Boulder School for Students of the Urantia Book. What we needed at the school was in index -- so our dream became to create an "exhaustive index" such as was promised in the first printing.
We scanned the Urantia Papers into a computer (what we had back then was an IBM XT with a 10 MB hard drive and black & white monitor!). Sending the electronic text through a couple of indexing programs (letter by letter) created two versions (long and short) of a printed index. We bought a Xerox machine and made a couple hundred copies which we gave away at the 1990 Urantia Conference at Snowmass.
The printed indexes became instantly obsolete when we saw the FolioViews program. In 3 little disks, we could give away a complete electronic copy of the Urantia Papers attached to a search engine of every word, every time it occurred. You can imagine our joy at being able to share such a gift! We mailed out indexes to every Urantian we had an address for all that fall.
Without warning, in February of 1991, the Urantia Foundation sued me for copyright and trademark infringement for giving away the index. I believe to this day any sane leaders of a religious movement would have thanked us, not sued us.
Wonderful Urantians from all over the world donated funds to hire a lawyer. Thanks to the skill, foresight, and dedication of copyright and trademark expert Joe Lewis, in February of 1995, Judge Urbom held that the Urantia Papers are in the public domain. The Urantia Foundation has appealed Urbom, and we are waiting for the Appeal Court's decision.
The important thing for the world is that the Urantia Papers, the fifth epochal revelation to the planet, God's gift to every individual on Urantia, are in the public domain at this time. Anyone can give away the revelation to a world starving for this spiritual feast.
In August, 1996, the Urantia Foundation sued Eric and me (again!) for copyright and trademark infringement for Eric's Internet Home Page, where Eric had posted a free downloadable copy of the Urantia Papers attached to the FolioViews Search Engine (the same index I was sued for in 1991). The copyright part of the lawsuit is on hold until the outcome of the Appeal. Eric has been defending himself pro se (without the benefit of a lawyer) from the Foundation's scorched earth tactics. Joe has continued to defend me, even though we've been scraping the bottom of the barrel financially.
Instead of putting all the documents generated by both lawsuits up on this home page as I've done in the past, I've chosen just a few of my "favorites." Have fun browsing -- if you want more information or more documents, please feel free to leave me a message at my son's e-mail address: colinm@earthlink.net
And may God bless your living of this wonderful revelation,
Kristen
Contents
Bill's Tape on Origin
2-18-62Religion Facts
11-15-95Authorship Facts
12-13-94Judge Urbom's Opinion
2-10-95FEF's Amicus Brief (Copyright Appeal)
2- 28-96Joe's Response (Copyright Appeal)
Appeal Hearing Transcript
1-14-97Eric's Response (Trademark)
1-97Eric's Legal Brief (Trademark)
3-11-97Last Updated on April 13, 1997 by Kristen Maaherra