Page:Urantia Foundation v. Maaherra.pdf/3

 Foundation’s renewal copyright was invalid. Urantia Foundation v. Maaherra, 895 F.Supp. 1347 (D.Ariz.1995). The court determined that the Foundation was not a proper renewal claimant because the Book was not a “work made for hire,” as claimed on the renewal certificate, and that even though the Book could have qualified as a “composite work,” the Foundation had failed to show that it was its “proprietor.” See 17 U.S.C. § 304(a) (providing that proprietors of composite works and works made for hire can claim renewal). We conclude that the Foundation has established that it was, at the time of renewal, the proprietor of a composite work, and that the mistaken description on the renewal certificate does not affect the validity of the renewal. We therefore reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Maaherra.

Central to an understanding of the case is the history, as perceived by both parties, of the creation of the Book. Both parties believe that the words in the Book were “authored” by non-human spiritual beings described in terms such as the Divine Counselor, the Chief of the Corps of Superuniverse Personalities, and the Chief of the Archangels of Nebadon. These spiritual entities are thought to have delivered the teachings, that were eventually assembled in the Book, “through” a patient of a Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Sadler.

The parties also agree that to understand these divine messages better and to share them with the rest of the world, Dr. Sadler formed a group of five or six followers, called the Contact Commission. At first, the members of the Contact Commission started discussing the divine teachings among themselves. Then, apparently in response to what they perceived to be prompting from the spiritual beings, and in collaboration with a larger group of followers called the Forum, the Contact Commission began to pose specific questions to the spiritual beings. The answers to these questions, as transmitted to the humans and arranged by them, became the Urantia Papers. At some point, the manuscript containing the Papers was intentionally destroyed after the creation of about 2,000 printing plates.

Members of the Contact Commission, including founding member Dr. Sadler, then formed the Urantia Foundation, an Illinois charitable trust, for one purpose: to preserve and disseminate the teachings contained in the Papers. It appears that the Foundation was, at least initially, headquartered at Dr. Sadler’s home. The Contact Commission transferred the printing plates to the Foundation through the trust instrument.

The transfer is detailed in a district court opinion, arising in another circuit, and also involving the validity of the Foundation’s copyright in the Book, but analyzing the validity of the original, rather than the renewal copyright. Urantia Foundation v. Burton, 210 U.S.P.Q. 217 (W.D.Mich.1980). The Burton court found that the trust instrument described the Foundation’s primary estate as consisting of the printing plates on which the Papers were inscribed. The instrument also provided that the trustees were specifically empowered, and had the duty, “to retain absolute and unconditional control of all plates and other media for the printing and reproduction of the Urantia Book and any translation thereof….” Id. at 219 (citing to Paragraph 3.3 of the trust instrument).

The Foundation published the Book in 1955. The original copyright certificate was issued to the Foundation in 1956. The Foundation renewed the copyright in 1983.

In 1990, Maaherra, who resides in Arizona, and who describes herself as “an avid reader of the [Book] since 1969,” prepared a study aid that included the entire text of the Book and started distributing it free of charge to various individuals. That same year, the Foundation learned that someone was distributing the Book on computer disks, using