The USCCB: Criminalizing the Use of Church Documents

[rpp]

The Vatican gives its documents away and doesn’t worry about changes. And they have ten times as many as the USCCB.

The USCCB also gives its documents away for free. If someone wanted to alter a document to misrepresent the Church, they could do it by getting that document from the USCCB.

So there is no copyright protection.

The USCCB knows that there are many people who would like to reduce it in size. They may be trying to figure out a way to start charging for their documents so they don’t have to cut staff.

I think the Vatican draws the line when someone uses their documents to make money. That is the prime purpose of copyright law. In this electronic age, the sudden publication of a document is also a concern.