We
have reviewed the numerous complaints presented to our initial team at their 8
April meeting with Mr. Michelson-Dupont’s team among ourselves, with the General
Council, and with counsel. On the basis of these discussions, we are pleased to
offer the following concessions to Urantia Foundation in resolution of the issues
presented at that time. These offers include both actions our counsel has advised
us need to be taken, direction from the General Council, and other actions we
feel are in the best interests of harmony and unity within the Urantia movement
and the community of Urantian believers.
1. We offer to
maintain current modifications of the Table of Contents to Part IV on our website
to address the Michelson-Dupont team’s initially expressed concerns. (We have
been advised in Ms. Shaffer’s letter that these changes are satisfactory.)
2.
We offer to make changes in notices of copyright claims on our website and other
explanatory material to make clear that, to the extent any copyright exists to
the Fellowship in the paper-section-paragraph reference system, or in any of the
formatting conventions used, or in any hyperlinked references in any of the files
of any translation, printing, or edition of the text of The Urantia Book
appearing on our website, we place it in the public domain and do not claim copyright.
We intend by this to accord to Urantia Foundation and all others equal rights
to use this material.
3. We offer to assure that all downloadable files
of the text of The Urantia Book on our website contain appropriate notice
of Urantia Foundation copyright claims.
4. We offer to expand our website
to present all Urantia Foundation’s translations, printings, and editions of The
Urantia Book, when available in usable digital form and subject to the availability
of our volunteer staff to complete formatting for acceptable web presentation.
5.
We offer to continue our present practice of requiring all individuals accessing
portions of our website containing independently translated portions of The
Urantia Book to register and obtain a personal ID and password.
6.
We offer to assure that all translations of The Urantia Book on our website
carry appropriate notices of Urantia Foundation copyright claims.
7.
We propose that, as part of this settlement, the Foundation will license the Fellowship
to present the works of William S. Sadler on its website, in English and in translation
to any other language, without restriction. In return, the Fellowship agrees to
assert no copyright claim in the presentation of this material, or its original
translations, to place any Fellowship copyright interests that may exist in the
public domain, and to make the data files supporting the website presentation
freely available to Urantia Foundation to use at it sees fit.
8. We
reiterate the apology to Urantia Foundation issued by our initial discussion team
for our oversight in failing to include a proper notice of Urantia Foundation
copyright claims in certain issues of the Fellowship Herald magazine. It
is the policy of The Urantia Book Fellowship to place such a notice of
the Foundation’s copyright claims in all its publications. We have clearly communicated
this policy to our Publications Committee, and do not anticipate further problems.
9.
We offer to retitle "The Illustrated Urantia Book" on our website as "Illustrations
for The Urantia Book" or such other descriptive term as may be mutually
acceptable and to maintain a notice of Urantia Foundation’s copyright claims on
these pages of our website.
10. We offer to suspend solicitation of
translators of The Urantia Book on our website until the Foundation’s copyright
claims lapse under applicable law or treaty.
11. We offer to retain
the current version of our hyperlink to Michael Foundation, which refers only
to Mr. McMullan’s Index, so long as the copyright status of Jesus: A New Revelation
remains in litigation.
12. We offer to place a disclaimer on any
documents on our website considered anti-Foundation, which may be identified at
a future time through discussion with Urantia Foundation Trustees.
13.
We offer to maintain and strengthen our current disclaimers of affiliation with
Urantia Foundation, including but not limited to disclaimers related to our Urantianet
service, to show the Trustees where these notices appear, and to make reasonable
modification in their presentation, if deemed necessary.
14. We offer
to add to the page of our website that offers The Urantia Book for sale,
a notice to the effect that the Fellowship is not currently a publisher or distributor
of the book and that the book prices shown on our website are from vendors other
than The Urantia Book Fellowship.
15. We offer to delete the
metatags "Foundation" and "International Association" from our website. We further
offer to limit use of metatags "Urantia Foundation" and "International Urantia
Association" to pages on which news or opinion is presented about those organizations.
16. We offer to direct the RealName "Urantia" to a separate, anonymous
website which offers the choice of a direct link to Urantia Foundation or to The
Urantia Book Fellowship. We make this offer because it is our understanding
that current RealNames policy precludes the transfer or re-registration of a word
like "Urantia" as a RealName. We believe it is in the best interests of the Urantia
movement as a whole to preserve this functionality and therefore offer to share
it with Urantia Foundation.
17. We offer to continue our current practice
of not displaying Urantia Foundation’s translator’s agreement on our website.
We
additionally offer to meet with the full Board of Trustees of Urantia Foundation,
with or without legal counsel to both parties present, to discuss these and other
matters and to arrive at a final, absolute, and conclusive resolution of all issues
raised by the Foundation. If this is not acceptable to the Trustees, we suggest
selecting a mediator and participating in formal mediation.
We agree
with the Trustees that the Fellowship and the Foundation share common goals and
look forward to working together, with mutual cooperation and respect, towards
these goals.