Richard Owen has written an article Vatican ‘cashes in’ by putting price on the Pope’s copyright in The Times.
The Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Popeâ??s words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements.
For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The edict covers Pope Benedict XVIâ??s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff â?? as Pope and as cardinal â?? but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.
The decision was denounced yesterday for treating the Popeâ??s words as â??saleable merchandiseâ?? and endangering the Churchâ??s mission to â??spread the Christian messageâ??.
A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedictâ??s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for â?¬15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus â??legal expensesâ?? of â?¬3,500.
Not too long ago I wrote about the Vatican Ethics in Internet report being pro-Free Software. The times seem to be changing even in the Vatican. Maybe we will see papal lawyers suing for unauthorised copies. Could this lead to a black market or file-sharing of the popes texts? Would you download a papal torrent?