Urantia Foundation

June 9, 2000

Steve Dreier, Marvin Gawyrn, Marilyn Kulieke, Dan Massey

The Fellowship
529 West Wrightwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614 1

Dear Steve, Marvin, Marilyn and Dan:

         Thank you for the copy of your "Report on Urantia Foundation complaints regarding The Urantia Book Fellowship web site," which appears to be an internal Fellowship document.  We reviewed the report, and we have visited your Web site several times to review the status of those areas of concern identified in the materials we provided to you in April.

Before discussing the details of your report and recommendations, we want you to know that we appreciate the changes you made in your Web site in response to the concerns we expressed.  Thank you.  And we thank you for suggesting compromises in several instances where you apparently felt unable to accommodate our requests.

At the time of our most recent review of your Web site, not all of the recommendations in your report had been implemented.  It has become apparent, during our visits to your site, that changes in the content of your Web site are made frequently.  For that reason, coupled with the need for review and approval of this letter, it is possible that additional changes recommended in your report may have been implemented after our most recent visit to your site. Any failure on our part to acknowledge a change you made at our request, has not been intentional.  We realize there also may be other infringements that we have failed to note.  We hope that is not the case.  We would like to receive clarification from you as to the status of the recommendations in your report that have not yet been implemented.  As we explain below, we are requesting a response to this letter and certain actions by the Fellowship by July 7, 2000.

At our meeting in Chicago, we provided you with a summary of our concerns about your Web site.  Items 1 through 8 and items 19 and 20 on the summary dealt with copyright issues.  Items 11 through 17 addressed trademark infringements.  Items 10 and 18 involved separate issues (anti-Foundation materials, documents subject to the confidentiality order in the Maaherra case).  Items 9 (your former hyperlink to Michael Foundation) and 21 (your use of the name "The Urantia Book Fellowship"), potentially involve both copyright and trademark issues.  We address the issues here in three groups: copyright, trademark, and other.

Our comments on your report assume that your specific recommendations were within the administrative authority of your team, and that we can expect all of them to be implemented. If that assumption is correct, then with the exception of the unauthorized translations,  pop-up commentary, and your editorial changes to The Urantia Book, our overall reaction on the copyright issues is that you have either accom­modated our requests or proposed compromises that we are willing either to accept or discuss.  It appears that no meaningful progress has been made on the trademark issues.  Because we identified the translations and the trademark infringements as being of paramount importance to us, we are concerned by your responses, or lack of response, on these key issues. We would appreciate prompt clarification of your position on these issues, as explained below.

A. Copyright Issues

Translations of The Urantia Book (items 2, 3, and 8). Urantia Foundation has published translations in French, Spanish, Finnish, Russian, Dutch, and Korean.  As far as Urantia Foundation is concerned, you are not licensed to display any foreign language translations on your Web site.  In large part due to the many difficulties associated with attempting to manage the Fellowship's use of the copyrighted material on its Web site, the Foundation clarified its licensing policy to make it clear that translations were not included.  (As an aside on this issue, your report indicates that you are willing to post additional translations as they become available.  However, as of May 28, 2000, you were not displaying Urantia Foundation's Finnish, Dutch, Russian, or Korean translations, all of which have long been available.)  The purpose of our discussions has been to achieve a non-judicial solution to the infringements, if possible.  It is the Foundation's intent to make the English text and all of the official translations available by hyperlinking to the Foundation's Web sites.  The English text and the official translations would be readily available to anyone wishing to view them online, and the Foundation would be able to ensure that only the inviolate text in English and authorized translations were displayed. This solution would not interfere with the Fellowship's outreach in any way, and it would avoid many of the problems that appear on the list of infringements we gave you. We believe this is the best solution for the long term.

We appreciate your compromise gesture in moving two of the Spanish translations of the Foreword to another page on your Web site.  All of these translations are, however, a direct infringement of the copyright.  We therefore reiterate our request that you remove all of the Spanish translations from your site.   We also note that you are displaying a modified Table of Contents in Spanish, which is also an infringement.  We are willing to discuss display of translated excerpts for the purpose of comparative analysis if we are able to reach an agreement with the Fellowship that resolves the outstanding copyright and trademark infringements.

In addition, you are displaying extensive portions of the book in an unauthorized, infringing translation in Portuguese, which is of inferior quality. We ask you to remove all of the Portuguese translation from your Web site.

You are displaying an unauthorized, partial German translation, in which the title to Paper 196 has been changed from "The Faith of Jesus" to "The Trusting Faith of Jesus."   You are also displaying an unauthorized, partial Croat translation, without a copyright notice.  Please remove these translations.

The Russian translation displayed on your Web site is incomplete, contains no copyright notice, and, although the Urantia Foundation published the Kniga Urantii some three years ago, the text posted on your site is not taken from the official Russian translation.  Please remove this translation.

We note that the translations are now accessed from your site index, rather than from your home page.  We ask that you remove all translations from your Web site by July 7, 2000.

In your response to item number 8 on our list of infringements (solicitation of translators for The Urantia Book), you stated: "It is vital to our mission that we have translations available for use in exposing individuals who speak many languages to The Urantia Book."  Urantia Foundation fully understands and agrees with the importance of translating The Urantia Book into the languages of the world.  Indeed, translating the book is one of the Foundation's top priorities. We do not understand why the Fellowship feels compelled to either duplicate or compete with the efforts of Urantia Foundation to translate The Urantia Book.  Creating competitive translations is a direct infringement of the copyright and it is completely at odds with developing and maintaining a cooperative working relationship between Urantia Foundation and the Fellowship.  Urantia Foundation insists on high quality translations that are as faithful as possible to the original English text. The work of translating The Urantia Book into the languages of the world is progressing steadily.  Urantia Foundation, as the copyright holder, has the right to control all translations.  As we have discussed, Urantia Foundation believes the protections provided by the copyright are especially critical during the initial translation phase.

Urantia Foundation has offered to work with your translators and continues to be willing to do this, if the translators are capable of producing high quality translations. Naturally, the nature and extent of their participa­tion would depend upon the quality of the translator's work and whether there is an existing translation in his or her language.  We request that you remove your solicitation for translators from your Web site by July 7, 2000, and that you desist from recruiting translators.  If you learn of anyone who is interested in translating The Urantia Book, please give his or her name to Seppo Kanerva.

It is not correct that the English text displayed on your Web site is "a very accurate reproduction of the text originally published by the Foundation in 1955."  In addition to the pop-up notes, a number of editorial changes have been made to the text itself, that are not part of any printing of the book ever published by Urantia Foundation.  Also, the Table of Contents, which is covered by the copyright, has been substantially modified in the English version displayed on your Web site.  The pop-up notes, which are embedded in the text and are, therefore, part of the text, contain commentary.  Your report indicates that you do not understand our concerns about the pop-up notes and need more informati­on.  During our meeting, we gave you several examples of commentary in these notes.   You do not refer to any of those examples in your report.  We are unclear whether you need further explanation of the examples we gave you or whether you misplaced the examples we gave you. The pop-up notes do more than identify the changes made from the 1955 First Printing. Virtually all of the pop-up notes pertaining to changes in the text contain commentary on those changes, in addition to noting the changes.  Also, a number of the pop-up notes contain commentary in the form of opinions about substantive material in the text.  For example, the comment at 397:11 contains a characterization of "current scientific opinion" regarding chromosomes, and the one at 674:4 contains a characterization of "current scientific opinion" regarding decapods.

As indicated above, Urantia Foundation strongly believes the best solution for the long term is to make the English text and translations available by hyperlinking to Urantia Foundation's Web site.  Urantia Foundation is willing to continue a dialog with you on this point, provided that the pop-up notes are removed from the text displayed on your Web site by July 7, 2000, and that you display either the original 1955 First Printing or one of the other Foundation printings.

Concerning the omission of the first two papers in Part IV from the Table of Contents for the Biography of Jesus section, when we viewed your Web site, we noted that the index page for this section had been revised to say "Excerpts from Part IV of The Urantia Book:  The Biography of Jesus."  If this change is permanent, it is acceptable to Urantia Foundation.

The Personal Browser Edition is not currently displayed on your Web site.  We understand it has been removed in order to add a copyright notice.   Thank you for agreeing to do this.  We would, however, appreciate an explanation of the purpose of the copyright notice to which we objected: "Format for personal browser edition © 1999, The Urantia Book Fellowship."  The statement in your report that: "The Fellowship claims no rights in the text.  We place no restrictions on others' use of the formatting, and freely permit its use by all" avoids the issue of whether the Fellowship claims a copyright in the format of the Per­sonal Browser Edition.  Please advise us of the Fellowship's position on this issue by July 7, 2000.  In the same vein, your "Online Study Reference Text" indicates it is "derived from the 1955 print media edition" (emphasis added) and refers to "this edition" and "the current editors" (emphasis added).  Please also inform us by July 7, 2000 whether the Fellowship claims a copyright in its Online Study Text or any other version or edition of The Urantia Book.

We know italics cannot be graphically displayed in ASCII text.  We ask that you use an alternate means of designating the italics. We are willing to work with you on this. We feel that it is valuable and important for readers to be aware of emphases in the original text.

We understand from your remarks about the Sadler works that you do not wish to discuss this issue, at this time.

Thank you for agreeing to include the copyright notice in the Fellowship Herald Magazine.

It seems to us that it makes sense to defer discussion of whether Harry McMullan's 21 Steps to a Spiritual Awakening falls within Urantia Foundation's Permission to Quote Policies, and to work first on resolving the issues directly involving Urantia Foundation and the Fellowship.

Urantia Foundation does not object to a link to Harry McMullan's Michael Foundation Web site, referring to Mr. McMullan's index.

Thank you for adding the copyright notice to the "Urantia Book Illustrated." Our concern arises, not so much from the individual excerpts that appear in this section, as from the title and presentation, which create the impression it is an illustrated version of the entire text.  Copyright attribution is for each work is necessary.  These excerpts may, if regarded individually, fall within the Foundation's Permission to Quote Policies. Collectively, however, they clearly do not.  A change in the name of this page, that made it clear these excerpts were presented as individual works, would be an acceptable compromise.

We have several concerns about your paper-section-paragraph reference system.  First, we do not believe it is wise to have two reference systems.  We agree that it is important to have a reference system; we have one.  Urantia Foundation has invested considerable time and energy to ensure that all the translations have the same page breaks and paragraphs as the English text, in order to make its page and paragraph reference system universal.  Page and paragraph references are also used in the Folio version.  We believe it is unnecessary and needlessly confusing to maintain two different reference systems.  Our other concern about your reference system arises from the fact that the arrangement of the text is an important component of the copy­right.

On further investigation, we agree that Dr. Sadler's Mind at Mischief is in the public domain.

Thank you for agreeing to remove Urantia Foundation's Translator's Agreement.  We note that, as of May 25, 2000, this agreement was still displayed at www.urantiabook.org/archive/history/uf_trans_contract.htm.

B. Trademark Issues

We have not been able to determine whether you have included trademark notices with all uses of Urantianet because we have not been able to gain access to all of the relevant pages on your Web site. We request that you carry out the recommendation in your report to add these notices.

Your report indicates that the graphic of the trademark "Urantia" will be removed. It has not. You are also continuing to disp­lay the Concentric Circles symbol on your Web site.  Your site is plainly "commercial," as that term is used in federal trademark law.  You need to remove all occurrences of this symbol from your Web site.

Regarding online book sales, we would be satisfied with a notice that either specifically indicated that the Fel­lowship is neither a publisher or distributor of The Urantia Book, or that the book prices shown on the Web site were from vendors other than the Fellowship. For example, instead of saying: "Buy The Urantia Book" you could say: "Best Sources for The Urantia Book." Other headings might accomplish the same purpose.

There are three important and related trademark infringement issues on which no progress has been made: 1) Internet domain name registra­tion, 2) real names, and 3) metatagging. The current law is that use of registered trademarks as metatags constitutes a trademark infringement.  (See, Brookfield Communications v. West Coast Entertainment, 174 F.3d 1036, 1064).  Accordingly, we reiterate our request that you drop the Internet domain name registrations and real name registrations for registe­red trademarks of Urantia Foundation, and that you drop the metatags for "Urantia" "Foundation," "International," and "Association."

You are correct, Urantia Foundation claims trademark rights in The Urantia Book based on long-standing use in commerce in connection with its sales and advertising activities.  The name of your organization and your domain name both infringe on this mark.  This issue needs to be resolved.  We understand that your team does not have authority to act on this issue. Please refer this matter to the appropriate group within your organization, and in your July 7 response, please inform us to whom we may direct com­munications concerning the use of The Urantia Book in the name of your organization and of the domain name:  "Urantiabook.org."  We acknowledge the concerns you expressed during our meeting, regarding metatags.  It is important to us that you change the name of your organization and your domain name.  We are willing to work with you to find a fair and reasonable solution to the problems with your other metatags.

C. Other Issues

         Thank you for adding the disclaimer with respect to the anti-Foundation material displayed on your site.  We appre­ciate your willingness to discuss individual documents.  For the present, we feel we have adequately conveyed our feelings about the display of this material.  Although we find the material to be objectionable, it is neither a copyright infringe­ment nor a trademark infringement.  We will defer discussion of these documents to another time.

Regarding your display of material subject to the protective order in the Maaherra case, we do not know how you acquired this material and therefore cannot assess your assertion that it came from parties not bound by the order.  A copy of the protective order will be provided to you.   Please provide us with a list of the people who provided you with the material so we can resolve this issue.

D.   Summary

         In order to facilitate your review, we have listed the key issues raised in this letter.  This is not a complete summary.

         Copyright:

                          1.  Display of translations and sponsorship of competing translations.

                          2.  Pop-up commentary and other Fellowship changes to the 1955 First Printing.

         Trademark:

                          3.  Use of Urantia Foundation trademarks, including use in domain names, real names, and metatags.

                          4.  The name "The Urantia Book Fellowship."

E.  Conclusion

We hope we can resolve all of these issues.  We need to find a way to move forward more expeditiously.  We ask that you provide the requested responses and complete the requested actions by July 7, 2000.

Your report again mentions a meeting with the Trustees.  As we have explained on a number of oc­casions, this group cannot respond to that request.  Please contact Richard Keeler about meeting with the Trustees.

While we believe it is possible to resolve all of these issues, Urantia Foundation is not interested in a short-term solution.  It is essential to the gra­dually improving relations between Urantia Foundation and the Fellowship that the Foundation can rely on the Fellowship to perform any agreements we reach.  We believe that licensing agreements, entered into with goodwill, are like "good fences" in the saying "good fen­ces make good neighbors."

Aside from the concerns discussed here, our team believes the Fellowship has done a good job with its Web site.  As Tonia said during our meeting, when we were told some of your members believed the Foundation wanted to take away your Web site, we want to bring your Web site into compliance, to make you "legal," so you can carry on your loving service and leave us free to carry on ours.

Very truly yours,

Urantia Foundation Copyright/Trademark Team

Tonia Baney
Steve Hill
Seppo Kanerva
Georges Michelson-Dupont
Nancy Shaffer