United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision, decided June 10, 1997, in a copyright infringement suit by the Urantia Foundation against Kristen Maaherra over unauthorized distribution of The Urantia Book on computer disk. The court held the Book was amenable to copyright despite its claimed celestial authorship, that the Foundation held the common law copyright at first publication in 1955, and that the Foundation's 1983 renewal copyright was valid and would remain in force until 2030.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Tier one: the federal appellate court's own primary opinion, holding The Urantia Book copyrightable despite its claimed celestial authorship and confirming the Foundation's renewal copyright. Its strength is that it is the court's own authoritative record of what it held; its limit is that it settles the copyright question specifically, not the book's own claimed origin or content. NotesThe controlling published decision for this specific suit. A later suit against a different defendant, Michael Foundation, Inc. v. Urantia Foundation, reached the opposite conclusion on the same renewal copyright; cite both together for the full legal history.
Citation
AuthorUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
PublisherFederal Reporter, Third Series
Publication Year1997
URLhttps://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/114/955/493602/
Source TypeCase law
Claims Backed By This Source (9 claims)
This source backs 9 claims across the atlas. As facts: 8 well-attested. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
- Articles, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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