Jesus does not own copyright

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt a.M. had to decide in a peculiar legal dispute whether supernormal messages from Jesus Christ published in a book could constitute copyrightable literary works of the author, when the author herself claims that the text passages were dictated to her by Jesus.

An American foundation, as the rights holder, sued a German association for the copyright infringing publication of text passages from the book "A Course in Miracles" and sought to obtain an injunction. According to her own account, the disputed text passages had been dictated to the author, a US American professor of psychiatry, by Jesus of Nazareth in "active waking dreams" and had been recorded by her.

The association adopted this position and justified the use of the text passages on the internet by arguing that the author herself had stated that she was not the author, but that the text had been whispered to her by Jesus.

The Regional Court (LG) Frankfurt a.M. did not accept the association's objection and granted the claim.

Court's Decision

The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt a.M. confirmed withJudgment of 13.05.2014, Az. 11 U 62/13 the decision of its Regional Court and rejected the defendant's appeal.

The plaintiff foundation may demand pursuant to § 97 Abs. 1 Urhebergesetz that the German association cease the publication of the texts.

The author did not have merely the role of an assistant or secretary without any individual personal creative discretion during the creation of the text passages. Therefore, she is the author of the text.

According to the generally accepted view, transcendental inspirations are legally to be attributed without restriction to their human recipient. For theestablishment of copyright protection only the actual creation process is relevant. The intellectual state of the author is of no significance in this regard, so that even persons with mental illness, those under hypnosis, and persons in a trance state could be authors.

Conclusion

The decision would have had to be different if, in fact, a third party had dictated the text that was written down by the author. In that case, the author would have had only the role of an assistant without any individual personal creative discretion and would not herself be the author of the work. However, proving this in the present case would naturally be very difficult…