Monday, February 20, 2006

Now this is interesting

Vatican Decree Is Costing Publishing World

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Royalties for Pope Benedict XVI's writings and speeches? The Italian publishing world is aghast.

The demand by the Vatican to respect copyright on the pontiff's writings and pay for their use has triggered hot debate: Should an institution which exists to spread the word of God be putting a price on papal writ?

Unthinkable, say some authors. Not so, counters the Vatican; the authors are being paid for their efforts, so why not the church?

While the question is pondered, the new papacy is shaping up as a publisher's dream. Benedict's first encyclical, "God is Love," is a best-seller...

Article.

4 comments:

  1. I am a writer and therefore, I can feel for those who may want to get paid for their writing but...the Pope is our teacher as much as he is our spiritual father. I doesn't make any sense to me to have to pay to read his encyclicals for my own spiritual enrichment.

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  2. It's a very complex issue. Of course, the Encyclical can be published free of charge in newspapers or magazines or online... the Vatican website has it online, for instance.

    I think we're they're trying to reign it in is when it's published as a seperate entity all unto itself... like a book, for instance.

    The idea is, why should the book publisher get to make money off of the Pope's words, and the Vatican's favorite charities don't get any of the proceeds that the publisher is earning mining Papa's writings? Of course, that's where the Holy Father's royalties would go, to charity.

    That being said, I think it's not particularly a big deal for publishers to make a few (or in the case of this best-selling encyclical, quite a few) dimes whilst also getting the Catholic message out there. That's the point of an encylical, after all - getting it out in the great wide world. We'll see if they actually try to enforce it.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. why did you delete my comment?

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