Copyright violation?

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Madia

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This website lists violating copyrights as a mortal sin:
catholic.org/frz/examen/examen.htm

Does anyone else disagree with this? While violating copyrights may become grave matter, I don’t think all copyright violations are grave matter.

Here’s the situation I’m in. I’m preparing a living will for my mother and am basically using two documents. One is copyrighted 1997 by Pope John XXIII Meical-Moral Research and Education Center. I want to basically copy one paragraph from the document and put it into the other document ( nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/ ). It seems to me that this surely isn’t gravely contrary to the divine law and probably not even sinful. Am I even violating copyright laws?
 
Copying a single paragraph for personal/private use is probably a reasonable appplication of the “fair use” provisions, and is certainly ok if the copy from which you are copying is your own (and was not an illicit copy itself).

The center has had a name change, does this text look similar to what accompanies the document you wish to extract a paragraph from?
ncbcenter.org/eol.asp

If you need a legal copy of your own (whichwoudl support the work of the center to boot) you could order a copy and rest your mind. And technically, it would be legal to copy that paragraph as soon as you sent payment for a personal copy.
 
I wouldn’t go as far to say that violating a copyright is always a mortal sin, but in many cases it probably is. I’m convinced that making illegal copies of most commercial software, movies, and non-trivial amounts of music is a mortal sin.

As for your particular situation, I’d need more information.
 
Documents such as those at your second link are intended to be copied and used.

I’m not positive about the document that you want to copy from, but I’d bet that using this one paragraph for a personal use document is in no way sinful.

A sinful use would be to copy the entire document and sign it as if you were the author, thereby stealing the intellectual property of another person and lying. You could compound the sin by selling the article as your own work, depriving the real author if its income.

There is a Fair Use clause to the copyright acts - you may use extracts of literature - articles, books, research, etc - as supporting or illustrative material in your own writing. This is sort of the same thing, except that it’s for personal use, not a professional paper or student thesis or an article for hire.

You could (and probably** should**) document the source of that one paragraph with a footnote on the end of the will to live.

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong in this kind of use.
 
“The center has had a name change, does this text look similar to what accompanies the document you wish to extract a paragraph from?”

Yes, I actually already have a personal copy that my mother gave me. I’m not sure where she got it from but it includes the advance medical directive and health care proxy which accopany the printed versions of the document. I just wanted to include most of the first paragraph on the advance medical directive.
 
I once had a priest suggest that I had infringed on the copy rights of the New American Bible. Guilty as charged. I quote from the New American Bible often. With all the quoting going on at these Catholic forums, we are then all guilty.

I think a person has to use some common sence. Obviously Bible manufacturers want us to use God’s word to spread the word. Obviously it is a good thing to quote things in the news for discussion. Mortal sin? I highly doubt it.
 
Steven Merten:
I once had a priest suggest that I had infringed on the copy rights of the New American Bible. Guilty as charged. I quote from the New American Bible often. With all the quoting going on at these Catholic forums, we are then all guilty.

I think a person has to use some common sence. Obviously Bible manufacturers want us to use God’s word to spread the word. Obviously it is a good thing to quote things in the news for discussion. Mortal sin? I highly doubt it.
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Some translations of the Bible are in the public domain (Douay Rheims, KJV), and you can quote from them without violating copyright laws. Just google “public domain Bible” or “public domain Douay Rheims” if you need online sources.

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