Seems as though everyone's concerned about copyright issues and rights management these days -- even Pope Benedict XVI.
According to a story on WNYC's On the Media, several publishers in Italy were recently surprised by invoices they received from the Vatican for the use of documents written by the current or former Pope. The bills -- some as high as 15,000 Euros (about $18,000) -- were quite a surprise.
This is another great example of just how confusing rights can be. Sony is still dealing with the fallout over their rootkit DRM fiasco, and now even organizations (like the Vatican) that typically want their message to reach the broadest audience are asking for compensation and control.
On the Media presented a number of interesting questions in their story:
- How will the church balance between "the evangelical impulse of wanting to give away everything because that's the nature of grace. The other is the realistic institutional logic. They, like everybody else, have to pay a light bill," asked John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, who was interviewed for the story.
- Because the Pope is also the Head of State of the Vatican, does that change things? When President Bush delivers the State of the Union speech, it can be published without any copyright liability because it belongs to all of us.
- According to the story, there is an entire industry in Italy that simply repackages and sells papal documents. Italian bookstores often have several competing editions of the Pope's new encyclical. Shouldn't the church be able to assert some control in cases like this?
Some very large and difficult questions. As information continues to become more and more valuable, companies at all levels will need to learn to address and manage intellectual property issues.
Even the Vatican.
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