A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.
Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored works with Pope Benedict and John Paul II, said that he was “perplexed and alarmed . . . This is wholly negative and absolutely disastrous for the Vatican’s image.” A pope’s words should be available to all free of charge, he said, and to “cash in in this way surrounds the clergy with the odour of money”.
Publishers will have to negotiate a levy of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the cover price of any book or publication “containing the Pope’s words”. Those who infringe the copyright face legal action and a higher levy of 15 per cent.
I don’t know if I believe that first story, and this whole issue cries out for the Allen treatment.
There is a line to be walked here, and it’s one that balances the need to get the word out, and the need to protect the integrity of that Word, as well as to ensure that the author isn’t the only one who doesn’t profit from the work.
Let’s put it plainly: I don’t believe that if a publishing house or entity were going to give copies of the Pope’s words away for free they would be charged, but I could be wrong, and will take correction on that point. I’m guessing (and this is pure guess) that there’s a concern with the Pope’s words being mistranslated/misused/used for purposes contrary to their intention, as well as folks profiting from their publication without paying their dues to the author.
There have been a number of books published over the past few years that were compilations of quotations from John Paul II, and as far as I know, all of those quotations, garnered from General Audience talks, encyclicals and so on, have been considered public domain by the publishers, simply lifted and reprinted with no royalties paid to the Vatican. And several of these books, at least those in the US, have done quite well. Sort of easy money, when you think about it.
(I’m saying this as one with experience editing a series to whom the sweetest words in the world were "It’s in public domain.")
But the implications for non-profit distribution of the Pope’s words? That’s what I’m interested in.
Update: Dom’s got a helpful clarifying post:
Mark Brumley gave me the example that last summer a German or Italian publishing put together an unauthorized compendium of all the Pope’s speeches given at World Youth Day in Cologne. However, what they published was not what the Pope said. They published the prepared texts when, as well know, the Pope has a tendency to extemporize and re-write on the fly, so the speeches and homilies that were actually heard differed markedly from what this company published. Despite repeated requests of the Vatican, this company would not correct the error.
In a January 21 editorial, the Italian daily La Stampa charged that the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, was seeking to squeeze a profit by limiting access to the Pope’s statements. The Italian paper charged that the Vatican wanted to "terrorize" editors and publishers with the threat of charging heavy fees for use of the Pope’s written work.
Libreria Editrice Vaticana shot back with a public statement released on January 23, saying that the Vatican was not limiting access to the Pope’s work, but merely protecting against "piracy" of papal statements. The Vatican publisher stressed that Italian publishers were well aware of the rules governing reproduction of papal statements, and that those rules have been essentially unchanged since 1978.
…The dispute with La Stampa began when Libreria Editrice Vaticana sent a bill of 15,000 euros (about $18,400) to the publishers of a book entitled The Dictionary of Pope Ratzinger, which was advertised as coming from "the pen or the voice of Joseph Ratzinger." The journalist who compiled that book wrote the first article in La Stampa criticizing the Vatican policy.
There. Far more to the story, as usual.
An Italian newspaper said the Milan publisher billed by the Vatican had quoted "about 30 lines" from speeches Pope Benedict made immediately before and after his April 19 election.
But in a Jan. 23 statement the Vatican publisher said the introduction to the 124-page book explicitly told readers, "Everything you will find here, after the introduction, comes from the pen or the voice of Joseph Ratzinger," now Pope Benedict.
The book was being sold for about $12 a copy, and it was published without the knowledge or consent of the Vatican, the Vatican said.
Francesca Angeletti, who handles copyright permissions for the Vatican, told Catholic News Service the Vatican wanted to ensure the integrity of texts attributed to the pope and to prevent publishers from making money off his works without the knowledge of the Vatican and without giving the Vatican appropriate compensation.
Newspapers, magazines and bishops’ conferences, she said, still may publish papal texts without paying royalties as long as the texts are not changed and a line is included saying the text has been copyrighted by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
There again.
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