Sword Saints

The church and intellectual property II

Being a software engineer in the telecom/networking industry, I'm quite familiar with corporate intellectual property policies. Every place I've worked has had some variation on the theme of, "You make it, we own it." From a company perspective, this is understandable. They pay me to develop things that will make them lots of money. They don't want to pay me to make something that I can own and take with me to some other company who might pay me even more (and I am just mercenary enough to do that given the legal recourse and opportunity). It's a protection thing on their part.

The church and intellectual property I

I'll be blunt: it bothers me that our church has an intellectual property policy. It bothers me even more that it is a fairly restrictive policy that rivals one that could be found in any high tech business setting. And it bothers me even more that, like the end of Animal Farm, I can look between church and business, business and church, and have difficulty telling the difference. But I'm sitting on the session now, so I'm in a spot where I can effect changes.

In order to do that, though, I need to get my thoughts in order. That's what this is for. I'm admittedly coming from a position that's more biased toward the creators of various works. Yet I'm also keeping at the fore of my mind the concern that the church doesn't get fleeced or double charged. And, of course, I'd welcome any thoughts or comments on this topic.