Who owns the Dharma?

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
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tobes
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by tobes »

KeithBC wrote:
Karma Dorje wrote:When you copy something you don't steal it.
Perhaps not, if you limit the meaning of "stealing" to depriving the other person of the work.

But the relevant precept in Buddhism is not "Thou shalt not steal", but "I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given." It is not about whether or not you deprive the person of the object, but about whether you acquire it with or without permission. Taking stuff without permission is bad karma.

Om mani padme hum
Keith
How do you reconcile the claim that it's bad karma to download a sutra without permission from the copyright holder, with the claims contained within many such sutras, that the merit generated from merely reciting one paragraph is 'greater than the number of grains of sand in the river Ganges.'?

I think that the karmic argument - for example in the Prajnaparamita literature - is decidedly in favour of freely copying, printing, spreading. What would be karmically problematic, from that point of view, would be anything which directly and explicitly impedes that.

:anjali:
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Tom
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by Tom »

It seems Mark Tatz has just joinedDharma Wheel... maybe he has something to say on this subject...
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tobes
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by tobes »

I have to sheepishly confess: just last week I was searching online for the Upāyakauśalya sutra. Couldn't find it. Then I found a hardcopy in the library I'm working in.....

:anjali:
cdpatton
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by cdpatton »

Leo Rivers wrote:Who owns the Dharma? Who owns a scripture or sutta? I ask this just to put it out there. Does stripping the text of footnotes and introduction "liberate" it? I thieve without shame, myself.

My question is based on a practical concern. What is the LEGALITY of having a fervent seeker or a guru's minion re-type the contents of a published academic work and post it on the web or distribute it in a "teaching packet" as part of a "course"
EXAMPLE: Alokamala© by Kambala - http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php?titl ... edirect=no
Or the global anarchy of PDFs files! ; )
EXAMPLE: Kurihara, Sh. - The Classification of Kambala's School - http://www.scribd.com/doc/50377179/Kuri ... l#download

Vasubandhu's family hasn't kept his Viṃśika-Kārikas and Triṃśika-Kārikas pieces in copyright, so Microsoft can copy-write and own them, right?
Image Image

If the public's tax dollars pay for a scholar to translate, can't we own his translations?

Without these amazing translators we are relegated to Kessinger reprints of 50 year old editions
http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Faith-M ... r+buddhism

and dubvious Ven. Master "in his own words" renderings, which were by the way the first wave of Chinese translations were sometimes done. AH! Django :sage:

It's funny that as a long-time/some times amateur translator, I've never had any strength of will to attempt to sell anything I translated. I have made a plan to a couple times and dropped it. These days, I think about selling them $1/fascicle or something very low as e-books, but then I also try to write fiction and I tell myself: "I will sell the fiction if I ever finish it and not sell the translations that I never finish anyway." Haha. Seriously, though, it never sits well with me to sell or copyright and traditionally publish a scriptural translation. A personal creation, yes, but not something that I am basically transmitting some long lost ancient text. It doesn't seem "right" (samyak).

Charlie.
Dharma Pearls Translation Project

"Supposing is good. But finding out is better." -Mark Twain
Ramon1920
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Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:57 am

Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by Ramon1920 »

Who owns the Dharma?
That's a very manipulative complex question.

But here is my answer to it.

Buddha Shakyamuni owns the Dharma
You are permitted to transmit the Dharma in context without alteration.
Altering content, presenting out of context, misquoting, charging, and misrepresenting is strictly prohibited by the terms of use.
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Monsoon
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Location: New Zealand

Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by Monsoon »

Who owns gravity?

:tongue:
Let peace reign!

Metta,

Monsoon
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

tobes wrote: How do you reconcile the claim that it's bad karma to download a sutra without permission from the copyright holder, with the claims contained within many such sutras, that the merit generated from merely reciting one paragraph is 'greater than the number of grains of sand in the river Ganges.'?
There are no rules that say you can't commit a sutra to memory and recite it freely.
As a matter of fact, this is what was done for a long time after the Buddha died,
before any of it was written down.

Don't confuse the book itself with what is written in the book.
You can memorize and recite the entire Lotus Sutra if you want.
You just can't run somebody else's print version of it through a copier.

Nobody owns the dharma. Everybody owns the dharma.
What everybody does not own is the right to duplicate the books or digital files of others without their permission.
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EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
oldbob
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by oldbob »

Seems like we are going round and round.

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p167611
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Who owns the Dharma?

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

oldbob wrote:Seems like we are going round and round.

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p167611
Yep. Thta's samsara for you!
:rolling:
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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