International Nath Order:Copyrights
From International Nath Order
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All of the writings of Shri Gurudev Mahendranath, published or unpublished, are Copyright © 1991 International Nath Order. All rights reserved.
Gurudev's Instruction concerning Copyright of His Writings
My memory of Gurudev Mahendranath's wishes concerning copyright falls into several general ideas:
- That his writings be promoted as a rallying point for new neo-pagans under the bannner of the new manifestation of Western Naths: fresh transplants of what he perceived as the dying Indian tradition of Nathism.
- That his writings be consolidated into convenient book form and be faithfully transmitted.
To this aim, many individuals of the Nath community of Canada and Western U.S. contributed to the compilation, editing, copyright registration, and publishing of The Scrolls of Mahendranath in April of 1990 to coincide with his birthday. Gurudev Mahendranath wished for truthful transmittal from his handwritten manuscripts, without significant alteration or distortion of content.
- The idea that his ideas via his writings be widely distributed and freely given, without significant profit interests, was always an operating condition of his assigning the Copyright ownership to the International Nath Order for all of his writings.
This was clearly a ""custodianship" transfer of intellectual property ownership to protect as well as to promote the author's ideas past his lifetime. Mahendranath's Ideas are his, we are charged with discharging his instructions; Mahendranath's writings are not "ours" with which to do anything we wish. Protecting his writings from base exploitation and misrepresentation is clearly part of his transfer of copyright ownership, and part of our duty in discharge of his will.
In this context, it is not expected that all comers be granted automatic license to publish his writings. The ability of a large potential audience to read his writings was expected, not that everyone, under any circumstances, may publish these manuscripts. It was not expected that anybody significantly profit in a monetary sense from any publishing activities.
Guru Om!
—Garudanath, Scribe and Editor, Copyright Agent to H.H. Shri Dadaji Mahendranath, Mahatma Paramahamsa
