Imposing Temporary Copyright on a Stake Creative Work

[chrisg]

Background: First, the work is a new template for Unit history authors; prepared by Stake as an option to be used by units in 2020. Responsibility for compiling histories has gradually travelled to unit history, sister specialists which is ok, as long as the computing side is within the scope of specialists, who have a great passion for history, but in my experience specialists do not always have the diverse computing experience of unit clerks. Sometimes there is a lack of material support for sisters. Sometimes the responsibility reverts, late term, from a specialist to a clerk. The template might be preferred by clerks.

The template also seeks to establish unit Organisations as the underpinning structure of the template, designed to keep the flow of information, stories and pictures under control, so we don’t lose sight of the value of other Organisations, and become bogged down in say Primary, which is usually very entertaining. The template is modularised so the user can jump to whichever Organisation he is interested in. It is in short, radical.

The term “jump” gives away the underlying technology: it is web-invented “hyperlink” technology. This means that the template has to be exported with some instructions, or at least access to a help desk. It is ambitious. My lovely wife commented it has a masculine flavour. I commented that’s good , because we also want to encourage unit clerks to author or compile unit histories, if necessary.

My lovely wife says our draft template has a look and feel of an annual, company report. Histories produced by the sisters tend to have a feminine flavour; a look and feel typical of women’s magazines, with an emphasis on Relief Society, which is fine, but this precedent may discourage some potential male historians.

We foresaw that the template would be tested as a trial in 2020; feedback obtained; and the template modified as required; or abandoned, for general use, as too sophisticated.

Our concern was that early versions might be distributed to non-authorised parties, perhaps without supporting instructions, and give the template a poor reputation, thereby prejudicing subsequent use by a new suite of compilers. So a copyright to the Stake was put on the template. This is not intended to apply to a history produced using the template.

Coming finally to the specific assistance welcomed:
1. Is it permitted to place temporary copyright on a creative work on behalf of a stake of the church, sincere objectives aside? The potential for distribution of the draft version by others has become real. We have been advised of plans to distribute the draft version regionally, based upon an ‘under the table’ acquisition.
2. Is it sufficient to declare a copyright thus: [copyright#symbol] Full Name of Stake [Year]?
3. Is it necessary to register or license the Copyright [under local laws]?
4. Would the church actively oppose such copyright, if not countenanced, given its temporary nature? A quote I read says “People who would never think of stealing from another, will not blink an eye at copying someone else’s work”. For example music and videos. We just want to be given time enough to adequately test and further develop. So far we have no evidence that any historians have adopted the offering. But the deadline for 2020 histories is March 1 2021.
Hoping for your input.

[lajackson]

Hoping for your input.

Copyright, at least in the United States as I understand it, does not work at all as you describe your situation. If these are real concerns of yours, I would suggest you contact a qualified intellectual property attorney or the Church Intellectual Property Department.

As I understand it, there is no such thing as "temporary copyright". You have copyright protection when you create the qualified work, whether or not you register it. You cannot keep someone else from using the work, even though it may not be legal for them to use it. If you are unhappy with what someone else does with your creative work, you must register it in order to seek redress under copyright law. But it is copyrighted when your create it, whether or not you register it.

Perhaps I missed it, buy why would you not want to share such a wonderful thing you have created to further the work?