In my feed reader today came a post from one the gaming sites I follow,
xbox360.qj.net, about the terms of use from Activision in regards to content created using Guitar Hero 3:
You hereby grant Activision a royalty free, irreversible, sub-licensable and non-exclusive perpetual license throughout the universe for use in any and all media whether now known or hereafter...
Did you catch that? "Throughout the universe" That's some forward thinking. Do we have other man-made laws that govern the universe, or is intellectual property (and the right to make money from it) that important that we've gone there first? Could intellectual property be the first cause of interstellar war?
And are they really thinking broadly enough? Should it say "throughout the universe and metaphyical/supernatural worlds (i.e. Heaven, Hell)"?
It's been interesting watching copyright and intellectual property become so much more important to so many people. I think this will become quite the issue for the church in the future; not dealing with copyright and how to use protected resources, but defining how to protect content that is created from within your church.
For example... who owns your church logo? Who owns your church's website design (if it's not a template)? Who owns the transcript of last weeks sermon: your church or the pastor. If it's the church... was the sermon done as a work-for-hire, or does your pastor own the rights to any residuals if the church (for some reason) decides to sell an audio recording of it?
What happens when someone patents a way to do missions work? Or what if your worship leader writes a song and someone steals it?
The movement to protect intellectual property, not just digital content, has the potential to truly change ministry. Could it happen that we have to some day license church models because a mega-church (or a legally-savvy church plant) decides to register their technique in coordination with a book/product release?
While I would assume churches wouldn't want to restrict each other in such a sense... what if it's not a church that patents it? Could some slick entrepreneur take control or systems and ideas if our churches don't protect their original ideas and messages?
Anyone out there have any answers/ideas?
