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back to article Vatican blogger meeting says no to copyright, yes to lifting content

Speakers at a bloggers conference at the Vatican this week gave themselves an indulgence, saying it is OK to lift content from "old media" and that copyright was old hat. The Vatican's Councils for Culture and Social Communications had invited 150 bloggers to a meeting in Rome yesterday. While many of the Catholic bloggers …

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  1. Chad H.

    So...

    Thou Shall not steal... Unless you're giving free publicity to the original owner?

    Brilliant. I'm going to go and snag me a Popemobile.... Its okay as long as I paint the Vatican website on the sides....

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      FAIL

      Poorly worded by the speaker....

      but you do understand the difference between copyright infringement and stealing, right?

      I hate to be that guy, but apparently it still needs to be pointed out EVERY time copyright is discussed.

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      1. TeeCee Gold badge
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        Troll

        Poorly worded?

        Probably deliberately so, to get the sort of sad git who just has to chip in with that pathetic old winge to rise to the bait.

        That's what I'd have done anyway.

        Hey! Turns out you *are* that guy after all.........

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          WTF?

          @TeeCee

          Trying to ignore the insult and keep on point, why would he deliberately do it if his point was that it is morally okay to infringe? Being Catholic they have got "Thou shalt not steal" written in stone, so ho obviously knows there is a difference.

          Or did you not have any valid rebuttal?

          At least *this guy* has a reasoned argument, and has so far held back form insults.

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      2. Chad H.
        Reply Icon
        Alert

        @ Krusty

        Yeah, I know for it to be theft you have to intend to permentently deprive the owner of property (which Copyright Infringement doesnt seem to because the IP holder still has the IP), but I couldn't resist making the same moral equivalence argument as our corporate and political overlords.

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  2. dssf

    Hmmm... I see the upshot of this...

    Probably it will save the Vatican a LOT of money and permissions-seekings on republishing "rights" if suddenly the world published for no charge...

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    "These people don't lie."

    "At the Vatican level I've been assured that there's no interest in regulating bloggers – and I believe them. These people don't lie."

    No - they didn't lie about widespread, systematic child abuse by their employees - they just covered it up!

    All religions are ridiculous, the Catholic church is both ridiculous and malicious.

    Anonymous - because, although I'm probably too old to be caught and buggered by Ratzinger's henchmen, I'm not taking any chances.

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  4. Pete 2 Silver badge

    It's a miracle!

    What with all the stuff recently about JP2 getting beatified (i.e. "promoted" in catholic-speak) I found out that you need 2 miracles to achieve sainthood. Personally I'd reckon that if someone at conference could manage to get the copyright holders of all this stuff to agree with their views, that would count as a pretty good miracle and (whoever the lucky person was) would only need one more - say getting Apple to open the iPhone hardware - to become a fully fledged saint. The world's first techno-saint. (Well, after they're dead that is - presumably providing tech support in heaven)

    All that remains would be to decide how we should commemorate that particular saint's day?

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    1. Mike Moyle
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      Boffin

      Depends on how you define "techno-saint"

      St. Clare of Assisi is the patron saint of television so, strictly speaking, there already *IS* a techno-saint. Since her thing is seeing distance-seeing, presumably she is also the patron saint of the web -- or at least YouTube.

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  5. Baudwalk
    Happy

    Easy for them to say...

    ...the copyright on their book expired over a thousand years ago.

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    1. Alan Douglas
      Reply Icon

      ...the copyright on their book expired over a thousand years ago

      According to Nietzsche, yes but others might argue the author is still alive.

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  6. James Pickett

    Lilies of the field

    "birds and flowers rarely produce much in the way of breaking news"

    You seem to imply that's a bad thing. Frankly, I could do with a lot less of it, not to mention advice from hypocritical religious sects...

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  7. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Does this mean woodpeckers are not birds of the air?

    http://www.birdinginformation.com/birds/woodpeckers/acorn-woodpecker/

    http://www.birding.com/topbirds/572aw.asp

    http://redstateeclectic.typepad.com/redstate_commentary/2009/07/in-dubio-pro-reo.html

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  8. Peter Simpson 1
    Flame

    Flamewar imminent?

    Let's hope it does not involve stakes.

    (they don't do that anymore, do they?)

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  9. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Coat

    To be fair here

    In Christianity at least the idea of copyright expired a long time ago - all of the major variations, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, CofE seem to have ripped off each others copyrighted works ... maybe the Catholic Church is now going to make a play for the Book or Mormon or Scientology ...

    OK - I'll leave the room - mines the coat with the pocket full of clams ... in a white wine dressing.

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    1. Chad H.
      Reply Icon

      Hmmm

      Well I suppose the Book of Mormon could be claimed to be a dirivative work, but Return of the Jedi... I err mean Xenu?

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    "These people don't lie"

    And Vatican spokesmolester Cardinal Pinnochio agreed.

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  11. Graham Bartlett

    @Flocke Kroes

    It just means Jesus didn't know much about birds. (Apart from those rumours about Mary Magdalene...)

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