This is the beginning of two episodes that deal with the legality issues that organizations face when they want to obey Scripture and make Scripture free. This has come about based on some conversations I've had with YWAM on the possibility of their organization switching to a public domain publishing policy for their translated Scripture. As you may know, YWAM has become heavily invested in Bible translation in recent years, and they are doing a lot of work around the world. I would love to see them lead the way in showing the translation organizations that it's not only possible to release Scripture as public domain, but it is blessed. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Now, to set the stage for the complex international copyright legality issues, we have to understand a few things that this podcast episode is gonna cover. The first is that copyright and patent law are a perversion of justice, far from a stance of natural rights and biblical law. Each Christian needs to decide, when they're faced with a perversion of justice, whether they will follow that or whether they will walk in the footsteps of the Hebrew midwives, Rahab, Moses's parents, Obadiah hiding the prophets, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Esther, Mordecai, and others, and decide not to cower before the twisting of morality by current sinful rulers. Each organization will have to decide how much they actually want to bow before the complex web of unreasonable, absurd, foolish, and unjust copyright laws that serve to strangle the free sharing of truth in the world and keep down poorer countries who are unable to comply with this web of regulations and high costs.
Nevertheless, it is good for everyone to understand the dark origins of international copyright law that began with greed, selfishness, censorship, and disregard for human flourishing. Once we have established this history and the many points in the development of this legal structure, the next episode will cover exactly what every ministry would need to do to fully comply with the laws before they release Scripture as public domain.
This may sound shocking and absurd—that you need permission to release something freely—but that is actually the case because of how messed up these laws are. This episode will explain how it became that way. You'll learn a lot, as I did.
Please share it far and wide so that more Christians become educated on this important issue that affects the Great Commission in a massive way. Once an organization has listened to this episodes and the next one, they should be equipped to move toward unbinding the Word of God. It's my hope and prayer that many organizations choose to bow to the command of Christ and give Scripture completely free of restrictions, rather than bow to profit margins, to the spirit of the age, and to an unjust regime that has destroyed the progress of human knowledge.
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