Site Index


Urantia Foundation presents demands
to The Urantia Book Fellowship
regarding the Fellowship website
October 12, 1999


Urantia

Urantia Foundation
533 W. Diversey Parkway
Chicago, IL 60614
TELEPHONE: (773) 525-3319
FAX: (773) 525-7739
WEB SITE: http://wwwurantia.org

October 12, 1999

Janet Farrington, President

The Fellowship
529 Wrightwood Ave
Chicago, IL 60614

Dear Janet:

As you requested, we are putting in writing what Urantia Foundation's Executive Director, Tonia Baney, discussed with you in a telephone conversation on Thursday, October 7, 1999. We are writing concerning several issues raised by the materials displayed on the Fellowship's Web site, www.ubfellowship.org.

We had hoped that the Fellowship would change its Web site policies in such a way as to avoid unnecessary disputes with the Foundation over the copyright, and that we could look forward to a new era of peace and cooperation. We have repeatedly been asked to be patient, and we feel we have done so, Unfortunately, quite some time has now passed without any formal response by the Fellowship. The prolonged inaction of your organization seems to suggest that your Executive Committee does not wish to cooperate with Urantia Foundation. If this is not the intention of your organization, please let us know.

It is our hope that in response to this letter, the Fellowship will modify the content of its Web site so that it does not run afoul of copyright and trademark laws. While we would prefer to work with you and again invite you to enter into a cooperative and mutually supportive relationship with Urantia Foundation, under the present circumstances this letter must serve as an indication of our concern and as an official request to stop the copyright and trademark infringements on the Fellowship's Web site.

After the Foundation initiated its Web site license policy, there was correspondence between our organizations about the Fellowship's complying with the policy and taking out a license to display the English version of The Urantia Book on its Web site. At that point the Fellowship agreed to abide by the conditions of our licensing agreement. (According to the Foundation's policy titled "License to Reproduce The Urantia Book on an Internet Web Site," compliance with the, stated conditions constitutes a license.) Thank you for confirming this agreement during our conversation. We have read, however, statements from other executives in your organization, asserting that the Fellowship has not entered into a licensing agreement with the Foundation and does not intend to do so. If this is correct, and the Fellowship does not intend to acknowledge our agreement as a license, then your organization's display of the English version of The Urantia Book could appear to be an act of copyright infringement, thus encouraging others to use the text without proper authorization.

We ask you, in the spirit of the law, to remedy this situation by ceasing to deny that you have a license to display the entire text of The Urantia Book on your Web site.

We have also attempted, without success, to negotiate a license with the fellowship to permit the Fellowship to display several of the Foundation's translations of The Urantia Book on its Web site. Despite the fact that your organization never obtained such a license, your Web site has seven translations or partial translations of The Urantia Book on it (Korean, German French, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, and Russian.) These translations infringe the copyright in The Urantia Book. These infringements need to be addressed either by negotiating a license granting the Fellowship permission to have the Foundation's translations on its Web site or by removing them, along with the partial translations that are not the Foundation's translations, from the Fellowship's Web site.

Also, you may not be aware that the Foundation is the assignee of numerous registered copyrighted works of Dr. William S. Sadler, including the following:

1. "Analytic Study of Part One of The Urantia Book"

2. "History of the Bible"

3. "The Theology of The Urantia Book (Parts I-IV)

4. "The Teachings of Jesus"

5. "Short Course in Doctrine - Summary of the Theology of The Urantia Book"

We notice in reviewing your Web site that you have copied a great deal of material (indeed, an ever-increasing amount of material) from these works without our permission, including, but not limited to, your reproduction of Dr. Sadler's "Analytical Study of Papers 1-5" and your inclusion of an online study course on the theology of The Urantia Book, To the extent that you have placed copyrighted works of Dr. Sadler on your Web site without permission., we respectfully ask that you rectify the situation either by discussing your use of this material with us or by removing the infringing materials.

Your Web site also provides a hyperlink to the Michael foundation Inc., which is purveying another copyright infringement, Jesus. -A New Revelation. Please be advised that we consider the content of your Web site to constitute aiding and abetting copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and inducement to infringe, all of which give rise to liability for the underlying act of infringements We request that the Fellowship remove this material frorn its Web site.

In late 1997, out of deference to our ownership of the service mark "Urantia," the Fellowship agreed at our request to insert an appropriate disclaimer of affiliation with respect to your use of "Urantianet" on your Web site. This disclaimer was included at some locations on your Web site, and we appreciate your response on this issue. However, as we review your site's current content, we see several pages on your Web site where "Urantianet" is unaccompanied by this disclaimer. Would you please add the appropriate disclaimer language in the places where "Urantianet" appears?

When the unauthorized display of The Urantia Book and translations of the book are paired with incrementally increasing use of "Urantianet" and the recent change of the Fellowship's name to "The Urantia Book Fellowship," one could conclude that your organization is using a variety of blatant infringements and questionable tactics in order to create consumer confusion over which of our respective organizations possesses rights in The Urantia Book, and whether there is a formal affiliation between our organizations. These actions appear to be intended to undermine Urantia Foundation's ownership of the copyright, trademarks, and service marks. Last year we adopted a policy explicitly authorizing personal use of the Concentric-Circles Symbol, coupled with a generous fair-use policy to assist groups and individuals with their dissemination efforts and in furtherance of our unity policy. We have asked that you meet us half way, that you cooperate with us to preserve the inviolate text. All of this activity on the Fellowship's part has been undertaken with knowledge of Urantia Foundation's copyrights and trademark rights. We would like for your organization to take the necessary action to bring your Web site into compliance with the law so that further discussion of these matters is unnecessary.

With all the cooperative ventures occurring around the country we can only hope that the leadership of the Fellowship would also engage in such cooperative, peacemaking actions. It is out strong belief that the current policies of Urantia Foundation provide an unprecedented opportunity for all those who wish to be about the work of the dissemination of the teachings of The Urantia Book. We encourage your work with respect, to such dissemination, but we ask that you respect by your actions, the work of Urantia Foundation in working to preserve the inviolate text through the use of the copyright and trademark laws internationally, These matters, as you know, are of great concern to us, We sincerely believe that what we are asking of your organization is not a burden in your own work of dissemination.

We look forward to your timely response to these matters, We want you to know that we would be pleased to discuss any questions you may have concerning these issues at a meeting on Friday, October 15, 1999, in Chicago.

Sincerely,

Trustees of Urantia Foundation

Richard Keeler
Georges Michelson DuPont
E. Kwan Choi
Gard Jameson
Mo Siegel

OTHER OFFICES: AUSTRALIA - ENGLAND - FINLAND - FRANCE - SPAIN