Just read a horrible story..

[Sunrunner]

I just read about this terrible tragedy!

http://sdadefend.com/MINDEX-I-J/ItisWritten.pdf

In summary, this Chinese Adventist in Canada wanted to share the Gospel with Chinese speakers in Asia, so he created a website in Chinese. His Pastor helped him by going to the Adventist Book Center and purchased a CD that contained pictures. The CD said that the pictures could be used for public presentations. So the man put the pictures on his website, weaving them into the lessons. The website was (and is) a great success, reaching countless souls and which tons and tons of people following the studies. Later though, It Is Written (who made the CD), contacted the website owner and demanded that the pictures be taken down or It Is Written would sue (guess someone didn't read the NT about taking believers to court). With a very low resolution website, the pictures were a great blessing to this little ministry and those studying. The Chinese Adventist, Michael Tung, sent a letter back to It Is Written saying that his concern was the Gospel and reaching those souls in China, and that technically he had not violated any copyright laws at all. It Is Written wasn't happy with the response and threatened a lawsuit again. At that point, another believer found about this and was extremely angry. He called in to It Is Written and wanted to speak with the Treasurer. He was denied at first, but then he informed the ministry that he had $300,000 in his will going to It Is Written, and if they didn't back off this Chinese ministry, he would take them out of his will. So the guy was put through to the It Is Written treasurer, and basically he said that if It Is Written got the $300,000 right now, they wouldn't sue. The believer asked if he could contact one of the living artists, Nathan Green, if the Treasurer gave him his contact information, but the It Is Written guy refused. So after this, the angry believer was disgusted and took them out of his will (I think). Anyways, It Is Written continued with threats and the Chinese Adventist caved under the pressure, stripping all of the website's lessons of those precious illustrations.

That is terrible! What touched me, though, was the fact that even after this tragedy, the man's website still links to It Is Written on the front page.

http://sdaglobal.org/ <-- The website, if anyone is curious.

 

[tall73]

I am assuming all this is true, just because at this point we have nothing but the story given. So we can't really verify or discount.

Technically he was violating the terms of use agreement as public presentations in this case means power point presentations for evangelistic use. I have obtained similar graphics packages at times, and the use is spelled out, and often prohibits web usage etc.

However...that is still pretty sad. They could have worked something out. If nothing else donors (such as the man) could have certainly funded payment for usage rights.

For that matter if we knew the guy with the will we could get him the info he wanted. The artist's website is around. I have visited it myself.

Now what contract he had with IIW is another question. Certainly he retains the rights to some of his works as he sells prints. If he gave sole rights over for some others, that would be another story.

 

[tall73]

hm...it used to be that you could get to Green's website from IIW. Now it appears they have linked to Hart Classic Edition's which is likely a branch of IIW.

So maybe they hired him on in some fashion and he signs over rights. Not sure.

But then I also see some of his stuff in different Christian art outlets..

 

[OntheDL]

I just read about this terrible tragedy!

http://sdadefend.com/MINDEX-I-J/ItisWritten.pdf

In summary, this Chinese Adventist in Canada wanted to share the Gospel with Chinese speakers in Asia, so he created a website in Chinese. His Pastor helped him by going to the Adventist Book Center and purchased a CD that contained pictures. The CD said that the pictures could be used for public presentations. So the man put the pictures on his website, weaving them into the lessons. The website was (and is) a great success, reaching countless souls and which tons and tons of people following the studies. Later though, It Is Written (who made the CD), contacted the website owner and demanded that the pictures be taken down or It Is Written would sue (guess someone didn't read the NT about taking believers to court). With a very low resolution website, the pictures were a great blessing to this little ministry and those studying. The Chinese Adventist, Michael Tung, sent a letter back to It Is Written saying that his concern was the Gospel and reaching those souls in China, and that technically he had not violated any copyright laws at all. It Is Written wasn't happy with the response and threatened a lawsuit again. At that point, another believer found about this and was extremely angry. He called in to It Is Written and wanted to speak with the Treasurer. He was denied at first, but then he informed the ministry that he had $300,000 in his will going to It Is Written, and if they didn't back off this Chinese ministry, he would take them out of his will. So the guy was put through to the It Is Written treasurer, and basically he said that if It Is Written got the $300,000 right now, they wouldn't sue. The believer asked if he could contact one of the living artists, Nathan Green, if the Treasurer gave him his contact information, but the It Is Written guy refused. So after this, the angry believer was disgusted and took them out of his will (I think). Anyways, It Is Written continued with threats and the Chinese Adventist caved under the pressure, stripping all of the website's lessons of those precious illustrations.

That is terrible! What touched me, though, was the fact that even after this tragedy, the man's website still links to It Is Written on the front page.

http://sdaglobal.org/ <-- The website, if anyone is curious.

Yeah, I heard about the incident with IIW a few months ago. It is disheartening! But I wasn't all that surprised things like that happened with IIW .

 

[StormyOne]

follow the money...... or is it people are making sure they get paid?

 

[nahMish]

Dont trust everything that you read...
It Is Written is based on spreading the gospel: that is their mission- there is most likely far more to this story than that link.
just like you can't go and photocopy someone's book and use it, the principle still applies.