Authorship Facts

The following document is the Defendant's Statement of Facts in Support of its Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's Claim for Copyright Infringement, filed with the Arizona Court on December 13, 1994. It is interesting because of the documented research on origin and authorship of the Urantia Papers.

DEFENDANT'S STATEMENT OF FACTS IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT AS TO PLAINTIFF'S CLAIM FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

1. The Urantia movement is a movement that includes everybody who reads the Urantia Book and believes in it. (T. Kendall dep., 45:1).

The Urantia Book

2. The Urantia Book is the fifth in a series of major religious revelations to this planet. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 19).

3. In the history of the world there have been only five events of religious revelation that are of Epochal significance, they are: (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 20).

4. The Urantia Book is a religious revelation which is considered by many to be a divine revelation. (W. Hales dep., 16:20, 16:23; Caston dep., Ex. 48).

5. The Urantia Book is an attempt by extra-human personalities to update our whole planet with regard to spiritual affairs and to try to influence events and give the people of this planet spiritual hope. (T. Kendall dep., 17-18).

6. There are many parallels in Christianity to concepts portrayed in the Urantia Book, the same way the Urantia Book is not an offshoot of the Christianity. Rather it is an accurate portrayal of the teachings and religion of Jesus not religion about Jesus. (Caston dep., Ex. 10; W. Hales dep., 33-34).

7. The Urantia Book teaches "the religion of Jesus rather than the religion about Jesus." The religion about Jesus which is in the Bible is written by other humans. The Urantia Book is more indicative of what Jesus taught and what he really believed. (M. Hales dep., 33-34).

8. As published by the Foundation, the Urantia Book contains a foreword and 196 papers, which are generally referred to as the "Urantia Papers." The book also includes two listings as a table of contents; one listing only the titles and authors of the papers and another listing more detailed information. (The Urantia Book, Dietz dep., Ex. 4).

The Origin of the Urantia Book

9. The essential facts which explain the origin of the Urantia Book are found in the book itself. (W. Hales dep., 22:14). This is the most accurate information. (Forsythe dep., Ex. 15, "The Urantia Book: THE QUESTION OF ORIGIN" at 1. See the Urantia Book, Dietz dep., Ex. 4).

10. However, neither the Foundation, nor any other human "knows many of the details and specifics regarding the origin of the Urantia Papers." Id.

11. The actual composition of the Urantia Papers was assigned to three special commissions of universe personalities. Part I was formulated by a high commission of twenty- four Orvonton (superuniverse) administrators headed by a Divine counselor and was presented in 1934. Parts II and III were authorized by a Nebadon (local universe) commission of twelve, acting under the direction of Mantutia Melchizedek and were indited in 1934 and 1935. Part IV was sponsored by a commission of twelve URANTIA midwayers acting under the supervision of a Melchizedek revelatory director. Id. at 2.

12. The Urantia Book was prepared under the direction of a revelatory commission. (T. Kendall dep., 18:18).

13. The Urantia Foundation did not write the text of the Urantia Papers. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 1).

14. The personalities who provided the text of the Urantia Papers are those personalities who are identified as the sources in the Urantia Book itself. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission 31, p. 71).

15. All of the words that appear in the Urantia Papers were written by the non-human, "unseen friends." (Carlson dep., 42:7).

16. These listed authors determined what would be included in the text of the Urantia Papers. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission 3, p. 13).

17. None of the entities listed as "authors" in the Urantia Book are human. (T. Kendall dep., 21:4).

18. For example, the first thirty-one papers depicting the nature of Deity, the reality of Paradise, the organization and working of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of the grand universe, and the high destiny of evolutionary mortals, were sponsored, formulated, and put into English by a high commission consisting of twenty-four Orvonton administrators acting in accordance with a mandate issued by the Ancients of Days of Uversa directing that we should do this on Urantia, 606 of Satania, in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, in the year A.D. 1934. (The Urantia Book, at 354, Dietz dep., Ex. 4).

19. "No human being determined the content of the Urantia Book." (Forsythe dep., Ex. 15 at 3).

20. The revelators of the Urantia Papers were "determined that future generations shall have the Urantia Book wholly free from mortal connections." (Id., Forsythe dep., Ex. 1).

21. The Foundation has no knowledge or materials respecting the entities listed as "authors" in the Urantia Book other than the materials which can be found in the Urantia Book. (Plaintiff's Amended Answers to Defendant's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 18).

22. The Urantia Book does acknowledge numerous human sources for material in the text, but the Foundation does not contend that such sources contributed any copyrightable expression to the Urantia Book. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories, No. 18).

The "Contact Personality"

23. The Urantia Papers came through a human subject, although they were not written by the subject. (M. Hales dep., 12:5). This human individual is referred to in the Urantia Book as the contact personality. 24. The exact identity of the individual described in the Urantia Book as the "contact personality" is unknown to the Foundation. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 10, p. 36).

25. The individual known as the contact personality was a patient of Dr. William S. Sadler, a psychiatrist. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories, No. 7, p. 29).

26. The identity of the subject was kept a secret by those persons who knew the identity. (Id.; M. Hales dep. at 12, Forsythe dep., Ex. 15 at 2). The revelators did not want any human associated with the Urantia Book. (Mundelius dep., Ex. 20; Caston dep., Ex. 23).

27. The contact personality died no later than 1975 (Lewis dec., Ex. 9, No. 18).

28. The text of the Urantia Papers contained in the Urantia Book was first set forth in tangible written form in the English language. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 4, Forsythe dep., Ex. 15 at 2).

The contact commission and forum

29. Two groups of humans were the first known groups of people to study the Urantia Papers; these groups are referred to herein as the contact commission and the forum.

30. The contact commission which was a group of five or six individuals was believed to have started in about 1904 and remained in existence until at least 1955. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories, No. 1).

31. The contact commission is not mentioned in the Urantia Book. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission at 12).

32. Members of the contact commission met with the person known as the contact personality. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission at 12).

33. The contact commission "work[ed] directly with the contact personality," not directly with any spiritual beings. Only the contact personality "worked in liaison with special [non-human] beings on Urantia" (Earth), and the members of the contact commission communicated with these beings only through the contact personality. (Plf's Resp. to Request for Admissions, No. 3).

34. The forum was a group of individuals who read and studied the early drafts of the text of the Urantia Papers, discussed their content, and submitted questions about the subject matter. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission at 13).

35. The members of the contact commission would select and edit the questions before submitting them to the authors. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission 3, p. 13).

36. The Foundation does not know the substance of each of the questions that were submitted, the date of submission, and cannot state the portion(s) of the Urantia Papers to which they relate. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories, No. 19).

37. "No person was paid to write any part of the Urantia Book..." (Plaintiff's Amended Answers to Defendant's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 5).

38. The forum did not write the Urantia Papers. (W. Hales dep., 11:4).

39. The forum did not edit any of the Urantia Papers. (W. Hales dep., 11:7).

40. The forum members did not write any of the text of the Urantia Papers, but merely contributed by asking questions. (Carlson dep., 42).

41. Questions were provided by members of the contact commission and forum, and the subject matter of portions of the Urantia Papers was suggested in part by these questions. The questions were part of the process by which the Urantia Papers were delivered. (E.g., Plf's Response to Def's Requests for Admission Nos. 3, 13).

42. None of the questions generated by members of the forum appear in recognizable form in the Urantia Book. (W. Hales dep., 12:21).

43. As the Urantia Papers were being read aloud to the forum, questions occurred to members of the forum. Frequently, the questions that occurred to forum members during the readings were answered in the next paragraph. (Carlson dep., 32:14).

44. When the Urantia Papers were read, they were not identified as being in response to any questions. (M. Hales dep., 28:20).

45. The forum members sometimes recognized information that they believed to be a response to their inquiry. (Carlson dep., 16, 33).

46. Apart from asking questions, the forum had no effect on the Urantia Papers. (M. Hales dep., 29:14).

47. The typesetting of the text of the Urantia Papers had been completed before the Foundation was formed. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories, at 84).

48. After the Urantia Papers had been typeset, the forum continued to meet. The answers to questions that occurred to forum members at that time were found to be already in the Urantia Book. (Carlson dep., 36:1).

The Foundation Has Consistently Indicated the Non-Human Spiritual Authorship of the Urantia Papers

49. The final original of the Urantia Papers lies in the authors themselves. All of the papers in the first three parts are signed by their author while credit for their presentation of Part IV is given to a commission. These are all superhuman beings. (Caston dep, Ex. 11).

50. Mr. Mills, the Foundation trustee and vice president, wrote in thanking for a contribution to the Urantia Foundation: Through your assistance I will be able to move forward with the tremendous undertaking of bringing the supernal teachings of the Urantia Book to all mankind, unchanged by any human ideas or doctrines. (Caston dep., Ex. 60).

51. Again, writing on behalf of the Foundation, Mr. Mills wrote: "The authors are those who names are appended to each paper comprising Section I, II and III of the book. An acknowledgment appears at the beginning of Part IV stipulating who the authors of that particular Section are. The authors are recognized to be superhuman beings, and since the advent of the book, there is no known method of communicating with them." (Caston dep., Ex. 20).

52. The Urantia Papers "have not been edited by human authors and all the Papers that were authored by the Revelatory Commission are included in the Book" (Forsythe dep., Ex. 12).

53. The Urantia Foundation is not able to contact the spiritual authors of the Urantia Book. As they indicated in a letter to a Urantian, "the authors of the Urantia Book, as they are spiritual and morontial beings are not available for communication with mortals like ourselves." (Forsythe dep., Ex. 19).

54. In another letter the Foundation indicated "The authors are supermortal spiritual personalities. They are not on call. No being has the power to command their presence. (Forsythe dep., Ex. 20).

55. The Urantia Book has been described by the Foundation as the "latest gift from God." (Mundelius dep., Ex. 8). In the same letter, Mr. Kendall, Foundation president wrote "if the Urantia teachings are of superhuman authorship and part of the divine plan or upstepping our planetary religious thought, then it would seem presumptuous for mere mortals to affect any changes." Id.

56. Other descriptions by the Foundation of the Urantia Book include: The Urantia Book is a meaningful whole constituting the Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth to Urantia, our planet. The authors, all superhuman beings, composed the Urantia Book with the intention of giving men a balanced view of his past, present and future, especially his eternal destiny that is his for the choosing. . . ." (Mundelius dep., Exs. 12, 14).

57. In another letter, Mr. Kendall wrote "the URANTIA teachings constitute the latest revolution of truth to our planet and are of superhuman authorship. Its message is intended to save souls and point the way to life everlasting." (Mundelius dep., Ex. 13).

58. Mr. Kendall, president of the Foundation also indicated the Foundation's view on these teachings as follows: "The URANTIA teachings were to be the latest revelation of truth to our planet and are self validating. The various Papers are authors by the members of an extra-human revelatory commission. Each author is listed in the index at the end of each Paper." (Mundelius dep., Ex. 16).

59. Mr. Kendall described the forum as follows: "The forum existed over a period of many years and its composition constantly changed. There were many members,... If they had anything in common, it was an attitude of searching for higher realities. The important thing is that these people did not write the Urantia Book. It is entirely revelatory. The forum members merely studied the Urantia Papers prior to initial publication in 1955." (Mundelius dep., Ex. 20).

60. Jim Mills, vice president of the Foundation made a similar statement:

The Urantia Foundation

61. The Urantia Foundation was a new organization established in 1950. It is charitable trust. (Plaintiff's Second Supplemental Answers to Defendant's Third Set of Interrogatories at 37).

62. The Foundation was not an outgrowth or continuation of any form of predecessor. (W. Hales dep., 29:23).

63. The Foundation received an assignment from Wilfred Kellogg of ownership of printing plates containing the text of the Urantia Papers and the rights under a printing contract with the printer R.R. Donnelley. (Mundelius dep., Ex. 2).

64. Apart from printing plates containing the text of the Urantia Book, no property, either tangible or intangible was transferred to the Foundation. (W. Hales dep., 35).

Publication of the Urantia Book

65. The Urantia Book was published just as it was received in English. There was no editing. The only function of the Foundation had to with typing, proofreading, and publication. (W. Hales dep., 19-20).

66. No humans decided the content of the Urantia Book. (W. Hales dep., 22:20; Forsythe dep. Ex. 8).

67. The book is unchanged from the way the revelators provided it. The human response to the revelators' initiative (such as the mechanics of getting the book printed, and the organization of the Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood) did not have any revelatory or spiritual significance. (W. Hales dep., 23:7).

68. To the extent that any human transcribed a handwritten manuscript of the Urantia Papers, it was done without substantive change. (Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission at p. 17).

69. Both the manuscript copies of the Urantia Book and the original nickel-plated stereotype plates for the printing of the Urantia Book have been destroyed. (Plaintiff's Amended Answers to Defendant's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 14).

70. The Urantian teachings were given by super humans. The Urantia Papers are considered to be on a higher plane than the Bible because they were given by such super humans. (M. Hales dep., 34, 36).

71. An important difference between the Bible (New Testament) and the Urantia Book is that the Bible was written by individual humans. (W. Hales dep., 17).

72. At some point in the time period between December 1950 and February 1952, William S. Sadler, Jr. (the son of Dr. William S. Sadler) prepared introductory materials found on pp. 1 through 66 (I - lxvi) of the Urantia Book. This material was included with the Urantia Papers when the Urantia Book was published in 1955. (Plf's Amended Answers to Defendant's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 17).

73. Despite the absence of evidence, for the purpose of this Motion, Maaherra does not dispute that such material was actually prepared by William S. Sadler, Jr. during the early 1950's. (Plf's Response to Def's Second Set of Interrogatories, No. 17). However, there is no evidence that this was done at the instance of the revelations of the Urantia Papers. (Keeler dep. at 23).

74. The Urantia Book was published in 1955 because the Foundation had by then raised enough funds to do so. (W. Hales dep., 15:18).

The Foundation's Copyright

75. On January 3, 1956, the Foundation filed an application to register a claim of copyright in the Urantia Book. The only entity listed as author on the application was the Urantia Foundation (Dietz dep., Ex. 1).

76. Nor did the application contain any limiting statement claiming copyright in less than the entirety of the Urantia Book. Id.

77. On January 3, 1983, the Urantia Foundation filed an application to renew the copyright in the Urantia Book. (Dietz dep., Ex. 2).

78. Plaintiff now contends that the authors of the Urantia Papers, within the meaning of the Copyright Act, are the spiritual authors described in the Urantia Book and five members of the contact commission and hundreds of members of the forum. (Plf's Second Supplemental Answers to Dft's Third Set of Interrogatories, No. 27). This differs from the Foundation's factual assertions in the past.

79. The Urantia Foundation now contends that the Foundation "is deemed an author of the Urantia Book in as much as interrogatory [sic] materials were written by William S. Sadler, Jr., as a work made for hire. . . ." (Plf's Amended Answers to Def's Second Set of Interrogatories No. 9).

80. In a civil action the Foundation brought entitled The Urantia Foundation v. King, the Foundation contended that "ownership of the common law copyright in the subject matter of the Urantia Book was in Dr. William S. Sadler, Sr. who transferred title therein to the Foundation." (See Ex. J. to Def's Motion for Summary Judgment on Trademark Issues.)

81. In an affidavit filed in the U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of the Foundation in 1980, the Foundation's attorney stated: "That there was a common law copyright in the said manuscript [of the Urantia Book] which was owned by the person who wrote it; That the transfer of ownership in a common law copyright did not have to be in writing, but could be made orally; and That URANTIA Foundation through its trustees owned the common law copyright in the Urantia Book by reason of such oral transfer from the owner thereof, and thus had the right to obtain the statutory copyright therein." (Affidavit of Lloyd C. Root; Plf's Resp. to Requests for Admission No. 43).

82. In pleadings filed by the Foundation in the case of The Urantia Foundation v. Burton, the Foundation argued:

83. Despite this awareness that the Foundation was not the author, the renewal application again listed only the Urantia Foundation as the author of renewable matter. The application identified the renewable matter as the "Entire Work." In addition to claiming to be author, the Foundation claimed to be "proprietor of the copyright in a work made for hire." (Dietz dep., Ex. 2).

84. When other works related to the Urantia Book were registered for copyright, they were registered either in the name of the author, or with an identification of the true author. (Lewis dec., Exs. 1-5).

85. For example, the copyright claimant for the work, Worship and Wisdom, Gems From the Urantia Book was William S. Sadler, who was also identified by the author. The same format was used in registering the work, The Teachings of Jesus. (Lewis dec., Exs. 1, 2).

86. With regard to the work How the Urantia Book Helps Understand the Contemporary World: War and Peace - State of the World, Urantia Foundation was listed as the original statutory copyright claimant. However, the author was indicated to be James C. Mills, a one-time trustee of the Urantia Foundation. This application also had a limiting statement on page 5 of the application so that the copyright was limited to the new text. (Lewis dec., Ex. 3).

87. When the Urantia Foundation registered a copyright in the study aids entitled Study Aids for Part IV of The Urantia Book,The Life and Teachings of Jesus, the Foundation was again listed as the copyright claimant. However, the author of the work, Ruth E. Renn, was specifically identified. The same format was used by the Foundation in registering the work, Guide to the Pronunciation of Names and Words in the Urantia Book. Marian T. Rowley was indicated to be the author on the copyright application, even though the Urantia Foundation was the initial copyright claimant. The copyright application also included a limiting statement so that the copyright was limited to the contribution of Ms. Rowley. (Lewis dec., Exs. 4, 5).

88. In recent years, the time for renewing copyrights in works owned by the Foundation has arrived. Works written by William S. Sadler were renewed by Patricia Mundelius, as his next of kin. The author of the renewable matter was stated to be William S. Sadler, not the Foundation. (Lewis dec., Exs. 6-8).

The Defendant's Study Aid

89. Kristen Maaherra first read the Urantia Papers in 1969. Since that time, she has considered herself to be a Urantian. (Maaherra dec., 2).

90. Ms. Maaherra has hosted study groups for the Urantia Book in her home and has consistently read and studied the Urantia Book. (Maaherra dec., 3).

91. Ms. Maaherra attended several study sessions at the headquarters of the Urantia Foundation in Chicago as well as the school in Boulder, Colorado called the Boulder School for Students of The Urantia Book. (Maaherra dec., 4).

92. Ms. Maaherra has four children, all of whom have been given names derived from the Urantia Papers. (Maaherra dec., 5).

93. Ms. Maaherra bought her first computer to be able to transcribe various speeches of William Saddler, Jr. on the teachings of the Urantia Papers. (Maaherra dec., 6).

94. Over the years, she has given away many study aids for the Urantia Book. These have included charts of Jesus' life, bookmarks, a children's book on the Urantia Book, maps of Jesus' preaching tours, and a computer program called Authpres. She has also prepared and distributed a study aid entitled, "Changes Between Printings of the Urantia Papers." (Maaherra dec., 7).

95. Along with many other Urantians, Maaherra felt the need for a comprehensive index of the Urantia Papers. In the mid-1980s, she decided to compile such an index. (Maaherra dec., 8).

96. Two versions of such an index were given away by her at the International Urantia Conference in 1990 at Snowmass, Colorado. These received a very favorable response from Urantians. (Maaherra dec., 9).

97. Ms. Maaherra subsequently prepared the study aid which is the subject of this lawsuit. In preparing this study aid, she utilized the text of the Urantia Book, but made no use of the table of contents or any other introductory material. She used only the Urantia Papers that were written by divine and spiritual beings and not the writings of any human. (Maaherra dec., 10).

98. Ms. Maaherra distributed the study aid without charge, and received no complaints about my efforts until the Foundation brought this lawsuit. (Maaherra dec., 11).

Copyright Office Practice Precludes Copyright Protection for the Urantia Papers and the Urantia Book

99. If the Urantia Book had been intended to have been copyrighted as a joint work, the Copyright Office would have required that all joint authors be named on the copyright application. (Deitz dep., pp. 21-22, 27, 43-35).

100. As a general rule the table of contents is regarded by the Copyright Office as an "appendices to the work itself and not part of the work . . . if a text is prepared and it exists and then a table of contents is prepared by a second party, those are separate elements. They are within the same covers making it a single work but . . . just because it is a single work does not mean it a work of joint authorship." (Dietz dep. at 66-67).

101. It has been the routine practice of the U.S. Copyright Office to reject claims of copyright "for works for which the individuals asserted that this was revealed to them in a dream by an alien from outer space or a divine being . . . ." Dietz Dep. at 26. As Mr. Dietz testified, in order to receive a copyright, "The work, the actual act of authorship had to stem from human authorship." (Id. at 25.)

102. The work of such spiritual beings would not have qualified for copyright protection under Copyright Office practices and procedures because these beings were not U.S. citizens or domiciliaries or a citizen or domiciliary of a country with whom the United States held copyright relations in the 1950s. (Dietz dep. at 18-21.)

103. In determining whether a work was one made for hire the Copyright Offices does not base its determination on who it was done on behalf of; it is the amount of control exercised by the employer. (Dietz dep. at 86:10.)

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph D. Lewis

Attorney for Defendant, Kristen Maaherra

Last Updated April 13, 1997 by Kristen Maaherra