Andrew Ventimiglia

Case studies of the use of copyright by new religious denominations in order to control the dissemination of sacred texts. This was particularly important in the 20th century as texts replaced specific places for the creation of religious community. Copyright offered the possibility of control, but having to turn to law also threatened religious authority, in part because in order to claim copyrightability there had to be some claim of human authorship. Only Scientology saw no problem with that, because of its purely instrumental (as opposed to truth-based) approach to litigation. Other new religions turned to law not because it was an unambiguously good option but because they lacked long-term structures that could solve disputes within the church. The chapter on Mary Baker Eddy’s strategic use of copyright to control an otherwise uncontrollable Christian Science movement was particularly interesting.… (mehr)