Maaherra Appeals Final Judgment

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In the fall 1997 issue of URANTIAN News, we announced that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in URANTIA Foundation's favor in the copyright infringement case of "URANTIA Foundation v. Kristen Maaherra." The Appellate Court declared URANTIA Foundation has a valid copyright in The URANTIA Book, and that Ms. Maaherra infringed the copyright. Shortly thereafter, the case was remanded to the lower court, the United States District Court, for final judgment by Judge Urbom. On January 29, 1999, Judge Urbom issued a Declaratory Judgment, which states:

IT IS ORDERED AND DECLARED as the final judgment in this case that the defendant, Kristen Maaherra, infringed the renewal copyrights in The URANTIA Book by the verbatim copying of The URANTIA Book onto computer diskettes and distributing the diskettes to others.

A few weeks ago we were ready to announce that URANTIA Foundation was, for the first time in many years, involved in no litigation, and that the Trustees intend to do everything possible to stay out of court. We hoped that, with the new Copyright Permission Policies announced in our last newsletter (fall 1998), future litigation would rarely occur.

We regret to announce that Ms. Maaherra has resubmitted the copyright dispute to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. We shall keep you informed about this case. In the meantime, we shall continue to focus our energies and resources on the duties assigned to us by the Declaration of Trust-preserving inviolate the text of The URANTIA Book and disseminating the teachings.

Foundation Info

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