The Copyright Office of The Christian Science Publishing Society often receives questions about whether it's permissible to make and distribute copies of the Christian Science Quarterly—Bible Lessons printed in a full text format. We thought it might be helpful to provide our readers with clarification on this point.
There are three ways to acquire the Bible Lessons in full text format. One way is to purchase the Christian Science Quarterly, Full Text Edition, in regular or large type printed format. A second way is to purchase Concord and the Full Text Quarterly Diskette version and print out the full text of the Lesson on a printer. Another way is to purchase Concord and type in the citations of the Bible Lesson yourself and then print out the Lesson on a printer. Duplication of any of these forms of the Bible Lesson for one's own individual, private use is permissible; however, duplication for others' use beyond that of the individual owner is not allowed without permission.
We know from questions we receive that an area for further clarification is the reproduction of the Bible Lessons generated through the use of Concord. For example, some callers think that the copyright rules apply only to photocopying, but not to computer-generated copies. This is not true. Reproduction by any means, of the Bible Lessons beyond individual use without permission, is a violation of copyright law—whether it be reproduced on a photocopy machine or on any kind of printer. For clarification, Concord owners may reference the License Agreement received at the time of purchase. It states: "You may not... use the program to produce printed copies of the Christian Science Quarterly—Bible Lessons, copyrighted by The Christian Science Publishing Society (an activity of The Mother Church), for general or public distribution through sale, rental, lending or any other means...."
