Update On Copyright

Urantia Foundation v. Kristen Maaherra

February 1998

"Arizona Litigation Not Yet Over"

Because I sent an Update headlined, "It's Over!" many Urantians thought
both the Arizona and the Colorado lawsuits were over.

However, what was settled in December, 1997, was the Lawsuit in Colorado,
which was basically trademark.  And this was wonderful, but it's not
everything.

In the trademark settlement, the Foundation said they would not try to shut
down the Urantia religion by using commercial trademark law against
religionists.

The list of "safe harbor" uses of the Banner of Michael and the words
Urantia and Urantian promised by the Foundation were not only for Eric, but
for all Urantians. The definition of "non-commercial," non-trademark use
includes (but is not limited to) the following:

1. Any leaflet or handout that invites people to a worship service;
2. Wearing any clothing or jewelry bearing the Banner of Michael;
3. Using the Banner of Michael as decoration on personal checks;
4. Using the Banner of Michael in the course of any wedding or religious
ceremony.
5. Using "Urantian" to refer to yourself as an adherent to the teachings of
the Urantia Papers.
6. Using the word "Urantia" in any non-commercial manner.

As you can see, this is a lot of progress (movement in the right direction)
from my being ordered to take off the Banner of Michael in court 6 « years
ago!

As I mentioned before, Mo Siegel was instrumental in getting the Colorado
lawsuit settled. Then he turned his attention to the (basically copyright)
lawsuit in Arizona. Mo and Steve Hill, the Foundation's lawyer, sent an
offer in writing to Joe Lewis, my attorney in the Arizona litigation,
regarding settlement in the Arizona lawsuit.

However, the trustees became unreachable to Mo, Steve, or even to their own
office manager in the middle of this whole discussion.  I may be wrong, but
this means to me that they are not that interested in settlement.  I do not
want to waste any time, energy, thought, or resources on something that is
not going to happen!

I have decided to tell my lawyer, Joe Lewis, not to spend any time
composing a counter-offer to the Foundation.  It would cost a lot of money
for Joe to concentrate on this (and he's already spent some time on it.)

I feel we need to conserve our resources for the final Court Hearing with
Judge Urbom in Arizona.  I do want Joe Lewis to be able to be there!

Before this settlement possibility came up, we were waiting for Judge Urbom
to set a date for this final hearing.  The Foundation asked for this hearing to determine damages and an injunction against me.

The interesting part here, of course, is the scope of the injunction Judge
Urbom is being asked to consider.

Joe Lewis, on my behalf, is asking for no injunction.

How can the Foundation own a "valid" copyright from the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals, and yet there be no injunction on me?  In other words, why do I
hope Urbom will (again!) free the revelation? Is there really hope?  And why?

Consider the Bible.  There are something like 700 valid copyrights on
Bibles.  An interpretation of what the Appeal Court might have been
thinking is that copyright is good for business, and what's good for
business is good for America.  Every publisher of the Bible gets a
copyright on the creative effort to publish the public domain Bible text.
The Foundation gets a copyright because of their Table of Contents,
pagination,  hyphenation decisions, etc.

Under this interpretation of the Appeal Court ruling,  Mark Turrin could
get a copyright on his HTML format of the Urantia Papers. The Fellowship
could copyright their 2-column formatting printing.

In other words, the revelation itself, the text of the Urantia Papers, is
in public domain, like the Feist case (the phone book case mentioned in the
Appeal decision). The Papers taken together constitute a single revelation
to the planet Urantia.

For those of us who believe the Urantia Papers are a  revelation authored
by superhumans, this could be an acceptable interpretation of the Appeal
Court ruling.  The Foundation could "own" a copyright, but they would not
"own" any right to CONTROL the revelation, God's gift to everyone on the
planet.

I personally believe that the Urantia Papers are exactly what they say they
are. I believe that the authors of the Urantia Papers are exactly those
beings listed at the end of each Paper. I believe that the Urantia Papers
are the fifth epochal revelation to the planet. I believe the Urantia
Papers were authored and materialized by superhuman beings, our unseen
friends. I believe that the Urantia Papers were authorized by the Ancients
of Days as a gift from God to every person on our planet.

I believe that if the Foundation told the truth in court, there would not
be copyright lawsuits.  The Foundation could spend its time and resources
printing and disseminating the Urantia Papers.

Like Peter in the COURTyard, so the Foundation in COURT . . .

Peter denied knowing Jesus, "I don't know this man."

The Foundation denies knowing the authorship of the Urantia Papers and/or
attributes human authorship to the fifth epochal revelation.

The Foundation is on public record with statements like, "I don't know who
wrote the book." "It's not a religious book," "The word 'Urantia' means
nothing but the Foundation," "William Sadler, Jr. wrote, authored, however
you want to look at it, parts of the Urantia Book,"  "The sleeping subject
wrote the book," "the contact commission hired the revelators," "the forum
wrote the Urantia Book by asking questions," etc.

Peter realized his mistake and went on to be a great force in spreading the
gospel of Jesus (or at least the gospel about Jesus!); the Foundation
hasn't repented its denial of the revelation and its abrogation of truth.

If the Catholic Church issued public statements over a period of years that
the Urantia Book is not a religious book and the Urantia Book has human
authorship, I believe that the Urantia Community wouldn't be so quick to
"forgive them" even before they've retracted those blasphemous statements.

I, and others who have trouble forgetting the Foundation's public
statements, have been compared to a nagging, harping wife, who keeps
reminding the husband that he had an affair.  However, because the husband
wouldn't admit to having the affair, his persistent lying won all the
property from the marriage (the copyright).

I would like to see public records reflect the truth about the revelation.
I am concerned with people who find the Urantia Papers 100 or 200 years
from now.  What will it mean to those seekers that the original publisher
claimed that the Urantia Papers were authored not by the personalities
listed at the end of each Paper, but by humans?  The Foundation's lies in
Court, on the public record, are a millstone placed around the neck of the
future.

Pray, once again, for Judge Urbom to set the record straight.

And thank you, once again, dear friends, sisters and brothers, for all your
support.  Thank you for your prayers.  For your letters and cards and
e-mail and phone calls.  Thank you for your donations, always gratefully
accepted.

Much love, and God bless you,

Kristen Maaherra
152 California Gulch
Jamestown, CO 80455
FAX 303-459-0350
e-mail: urantian@concentric.net