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It has long been observed that the myth of the individual discoverer of knowledge is exactly that--a myth. The sociologists of science support the conception of knowledge as communal rather than as individual. For example, Diana Crane's seminal study, Invisible Colleges (1972), documents the extent to which ideas are nourished and developed through networks of interaction among scientists who may come from many different disciplines but who form a powerful social group around a common problem. Yet the print technology through which this communally developed knowledge is typically delivered continually enforces the opposite message--that knowledge is individually discovered and owned.
Commentary
Matt Neibaur adds as follows:
"I believe that the Revelators adhered to the view of community knowledge-ownership. Knowledge that benefits the community--mankind--is to be owned by the community for the common good. Jesus, in discussing wealth, made the following recommendations:
"If you chance to secure wealth by flights of genius, if your riches are derived from rewards of inventive endowment, do not lay claim to an unfair portion of such rewards. The genius owes something to both his ancestors and his progeny; likewise is he under obligation to the race, nation, and circumstances of his inventive discoveries; he should also remember that it was as man among men that he labored and wrought out his inventions." (1464)
"If the inventive genius owes something to the society in which such creativity was nurtured, would the same not hold for the inventor of text? Clearly, the Revelators of The Urantia Book take a more enlightened view of individual ownership of intellectual property than does modern society. It is indeed ironic that the copyright mores could be ignored by them, yet fanatically endorsed by the community to which the book was given. This makes me doubt the authenticity of a mandate to copyright the Urantia Book text. A radical reform of our ideas of individual ownership of text will certainly come to pass as the electronic media invades our lives. Perhaps then, we will begin to heed the advice of Jesus on ownership and reward as we advance in the direction of light and life."
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