On the Specter of Copyright Hijacking

Selling Jesus

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Here at Selling Jesus, we advocate that ministries release their content into the public domain.

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Among other reasons, we believe this to be the most consistent approach to Jesus' command in Matthew 10 .8,

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freely give. However, a question occasionally arises at this point, couldn't another party republish that content and then claim it as their own?

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Furthermore, couldn't they then take legal action against the original creator who hadn't claimed copyright?

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For lack of a more official term, I'll refer to this as copyright hijacking. In response to this,

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I'm going to give five arguments. The first argument is this, the public domain is not new ground.

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Often people have this concern because they believe the public domain is untrodden territory and they would be taking a relatively new risk that others have not taken.

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This simply isn't the case. Innumerable older works are already in the public domain and have been for a long time.

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While someone could claim authorship of older works and then use this to litigate others who might republish, we're not aware of any cases where this has happened.

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Additionally, works by the US government are in the public domain. This would include the speeches of government agencies, as well as any information produced directly by them and not some third -party contractor.

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These comprise millions of documents and recordings. Once again, we're not aware of any case where someone has claimed ownership of one of these works and then use that claim to litigate others.

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Other public domain dedications have been around for some time. The most popular of these,

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Creative Commons Zero, has been in frequent use since 2009. If copyright hijacking is such a serious threat for works dedicated to the public domain, where are the manifold examples of a

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Creative Commons Zero work being hijacked in this way? Secondly, copyright hijacking is not legal.

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Perhaps the main reason folks worry about copyright hijacking is because they imagine it is legal.

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However, it is not. If one waives their rights to a work, there is no legal ground for another party to come along and claim those rights exclusively.

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The Berne Convention, an international copyright treaty, addresses these matters with common sense.

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Rights are granted specifically to authors, not publishers or other distributors. Someone may falsely claim to hold the rights to a work in the absence of proof to the contrary, but this, quote, shall cease to apply when the author reveals his identity and establishes his claim to authorship of the work, end quote.

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Likewise, in the United States, one has to be the author of a creative work or receive a license from that author in order to claim exclusive rights.

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Apart from such licensing, no prosecution would have legal standing. Any evidence of prior authorship would immediately render the claim invalid.

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In fact, a claim to ownership over a work authored by another and dedicated to the public domain would not only be invalid, but potentially would even be subject to litigation.

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One photographer, who had dedicated her images to the public domain, brought a lawsuit against Getty Images for claiming ownership of her photos.

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The court agreed with Getty that the public domain photos could be commercialized, but it also upheld the photographer's claim that Getty was acting deceptively by claiming ownership of them.

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While the parties involved ended up settling outside of court, it is evident from this case that you cannot claim exclusive rights to a public domain work, and even large corporations can't get away with falsely claiming such ownership.

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These are basics when it comes to copyright. Simply put, when one waives exclusive rights, that exclusivity does not become up for grabs.

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Third, asserting all rights reserved does little to prevent copyright hijacking.

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So this breaks down into two categories, unintentional actors and malicious actors. Regarding unintentional actors, there are some instances where a public domain work, because it is freely available, may be added to a system designed to detect unauthorized copies.

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By all appearances, this is what happened in the Getty Images case. However, other well -known phenomena, like the frequency of false

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YouTube copyright strikes on original content, make it evident that platforms will often claim third -party ownership even of fully copyrighted works.

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In either case, legal recourse is available. Now regarding malicious actors, there is no difference.

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One could just as easily claim authorship or exclusive rights to a work that is dedicated to the public domain as they could to a work that is not.

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Criminals don't stop being criminals simply because you put up a sign that says you're not allowed to be a criminal.

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Fourth, copyright registration and public domain dedications are not mutually exclusive.

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If even works with all rights reserved stamped on them are subject to copyright hijacking, what is the remedy?

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So the generally recommended solution here is copyright registration. By registering with the

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Copyright Office, you make some public record that could assist you in the event of litigation, and would even be necessary if you were the party filing for legal action.

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In fact, this is exactly the same approach one can take with a work dedicated to the public domain.

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Dedication to the public domain does not change whether a work can be registered. Stated differently, what you intend to do with the work, and how you intend to license the work, does not affect the authorship of the work.

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Of course, this registration process takes several months and costs $65. Depending on the quantity of creative works your ministry produces, registering each could become onerous.

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Furthermore, legal protection still exists even without this registration, which is why few choose to pursue this route in the first place.

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Practically, uploading your work on a third -party website like archive .org under your own account provides equivalent evidence of authorship while being both quick and free.

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So that solves that concern. But lastly, fifthly, I would like to point out that principle always trumps pragmatism.

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It's important to ask these hypothetical questions about copyright with the right mindset. There are commendable ways of approaching this concern.

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For example, I could ask, how do I dedicate my work in the public domain responsibly so that I don't open myself or others up to unnecessary harm?

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Or I could ask, are there any implications to the public domain that would prove inconsistent with other moral imperatives in Scripture?

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Now there are also less honorable approaches. For example, I could ask, regardless of what

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Jesus commands, what approach seems like it will ensure my ministry has the most success?

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In other words, it puts results above the very commands of Jesus. Or I could ask, what justifications can

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I find for withholding generosity in ministry? Now at that point, you're just making excuses for doing what you wanted to do in the first place.

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While we should walk by faith and not by sight in every area of life, this is especially true in the work of ministry.

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In fact, the Bible specifically tells us that pragmatic, results -oriented approaches to generosity typically don't play out as one would expect.

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Consider the words of Proverbs 11 24, one gives freely yet gains even more.

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Another withholds what is right only to become poor. So let me encourage you to take a step back and examine your heart around whatever concern you may have regarding copyright hijacking.

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While this is a real thing to some degree, it is a rare threat and should not be a major concern for ministries.

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Moreover, the difference between asserting all rights reserved and making a public domain dedication has little impact on whether a work would be subject to copyright hijacking.

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As such, a ministry's decision to dedicate their works to the public domain should not be influenced by such pragmatic concerns.

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Instead, it should be based on their desire to generously follow the command and example of Christ.