Ray Comfort Materials Copyright

So they are only for personal use and no distribution? Are there any other speakers on this site that have that policy? I just want to follow the rules..

No the copyright is only for the Living Waters stuff. You can only use them for personal use ONLY! There are many reasons why our ministry is doing this:Thank you so much for writing to inquire about our new copyright policy. In light of the previous policy we had before, it is quite natural that you would have several questions. It is our desire to answer your questions to the best of our ability, and to explain why it was necessary for us to take this recent course of action. In recent days, and with the international exposure that our ministry has received, people have been copying our resources and selling them for profit. Many of these individuals are not operating as non-profit ministries. They are privately profiting from the sale of our resources. Some of these individual are unbelievers and have been selling our resources all over eBay, along with occultic and satanic books. There have been others who have copied material from our ministry and have used it in inappropriate ways. This is not desirable. Due to the fact that our resources were not previously copyrighted, this not only leaves us legally powerless to stop this sort of activity, but it also encourages it. Our copyright policy does not imply that we do not have the right to allow others to copy our resources. It simply means that we are able to control who this permission is granted to. Things have gotten so out of control with what people are doing with our resources, that immediate intervention on our part was absolutely necessary. In due time, we can begin to carefully expand the parameters of what others may duplicate. In the meantime, however, it is paramount that we regain control through enforcing a strict policy. We trust that you are familiar enough with Ray Comfort's character to know that he has no other motive but to further the gospel and maximize the effectiveness of this ministry to do just that. He would never publicize this himself, but he and his wife own one vehicle; he rides a bike to work everyday; he takes all the private financial gifts he is given when he is invited to speak at conferences and churches and gives them directly to the ministry to help us pay our bills; he has at times gone without his monthly wage in order to help the ministry when we have had financial difficulties. These are just to name a few of the selfless things he regularly does to make sure that the Great Commission is fulfilled. As the head of our ministry, he is constantly looking for ways to make our resources as affordable as possible, and to give away as much as possible free of charge. Financial gain is the furthest thing from his mind. Please keep in mind that we are a non-profit ministry. All the revenue that comes in goes right back into covering our overhead costs, and reprinting or reduplicating our resources, in order to keep our shelves stocked. It also goes towards producing new evangelistic resources. No one pockets any of the profit that comes into LWP. It is important to know that it costs several hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce the resources that you and others have been blessed by. As good stewards of God's ministry, we cannot allow greedy unbelievers to take our materials and sell them for their own personal gain, in turn hindering Living Waters Publications from being able to continue touching the unsaved with the gospel and believers with encouraging truth that will build up their souls. Nor is it appropriate to allow believers to freely copy resources that cost great amounts of money to produce, when they can legitimately afford to purchase them. This would take a major toll on the ministry's ability to continue impacting the world. We have always tried to accommodate everyone who has requested of us to give them free resources because they can't afford them. Our pleasure in continuing to gladly do this will not cease. If it did not cost anything to produce our resources, we would never charge for them. We thank you for your understanding and we ask that you pray for God to grant us wisdom in every decision we make. With much appreciation, LWP So that is some of the reasons and our response to everyone's questions on our products.

I had always personally wondered how long it would be until Ray Comfort would be forced to take this measure. Copyrighting is simply a way of protecting the work one has done from being exploited. At least nobody went ahead and Copyrighted Ray's stuff, and then turned around and sued him for using their copyrighted materials.

Also, I am curious, but how will the new Copyright rules effect people (like me) who already own the uncopyrighted videos?

It won't really affect you at all. You can keep any materials obtained through the old copyright, but the new policy overrides it so you can't distribute them.

No, you can only use 1 copy for personal use and not duplicate others.That is truly sad. That has nothing to do with preventing abuse or illegal sales and most certainly cast a very dark cloud over this ministry. This is a sad day. Shame on you Living Water Ministries!:cry:

That is truly sad. That has nothing to do with preventing abuse or illegal sales and most certainly cast a very dark cloud over this ministry. This is a sad day. Shame on you Living Water Ministries!How does this cast a dark cloud over this ministry? How does it not have to do with preventing abuse? Read the post by Forevidence. It was a decision that had to be made. You can buy the materials from the ministry and distribute them. You just can't duplicate them or sell them. People can download and listen for free, so just send people to this website. Christian music is copyrighted...does that make it evil? Times Square Church copyrights their sermons. Greg can include them on here the same way anyone distributes copyrighted material legally...ask permission from the copyright holder. It was a necessary decision (albeit a disappointing one). It provides legal inroads to protecting the Lord's work so lawbreakers can feel the curse of the law now and pay the penalty on Judgment Day. Just something to think about.With Love,denver

BeYeDoers,It is not the copyright that people have a problem with. Time Square copyrights their sermon and allows for free distribution. Christian music is copyrighted, but I can burn CD and share them with my friends. Here is the copyright information from some music here on sermonidex."HEY! We would love to say nothing more, UNFORTUNATELY, due to ambition, greed, "conforming to the patterns of the world" and the like in culturalized and popularized christianity of the day, we needed to add these few additional thoughts: (c) 2000 Lordin Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Under NO circumstances are copies of this CD or any song thereon to be sold or leased, nor are you allowed to re-record them as a part of any creative work being sold. (For any exceptions to these requirements, please write to us for permission and to say "Hi!") Furthermore, you are totally forbidden to perform these songs for money and YES, THAT INCLUDES any so-called "LOVE OFFERINGS" of any kind. God is jealous for what is His, so selling what is God's, to God's people, is a really, really bad idea. (Balaam's error, Jude 11)"Copyrighting is not at all in the least a problem. Copyrighting that is done for protection and so people who abuse these works can be prosecuted is not at all a problem.Statement's like the one made by Living Waters are not made for protection from abuse. Statements like the one above are made for protection from abuse.No, you can only use 1 copy for personal use and not duplicate others. This statement casts a dark could over this ministry. If Living Waters wanted to copyright for protection and for legal recourse, then they would have made a statement like the one above or the one Time Square makes.No, you can only use 1 copy for personal use and not duplicate others. That is truly sad. That has nothing to do with preventing abuse or illegal sales and most certainly cast a very dark cloud over this ministry. This is a sad day. Shame on you Living Water Ministries!

I guess I have had to ask myself, what would I do?I'm thinking of a ministry that I trusted and God impacted me with, years ago, "Last Day's Ministry".I think they copyrighted all their material, but it was free if you could not afford to pay for it.Copyrighting material I think just says that you own it to protect your ideas, product, book, etc. The issues are making money on your product, ministering the Gospel, and protecting from theft/ misuse. I for one would not want something I wrote, "stolen" and misued, and I believe this is what LW is doing to protect their hard work from theft. They are still offering it free through venues like SI, and why not pay LW and Ray for the hard work and dilligence for ministering the gospel? They still have to eat? right?I did see many people selling LW items on eBay and it seemed wierd.. why not give that money to Ray or keep it for ministry... ? These are all questions I have asked myself about money, ministry, etc. maybe for another thread to discuss.Let's look at the heart of LW ministry and not be too critical.. I was at first, and then came to realize that they have to steward what God has given them to use to minister the Gospel effectively to the world. Satan would love to destroy what God has been using here.In Christ,Doug Renz

ChristinyouI have also struggled with the 'copyright' issue for a long time. The trend to 'copyright' songs so that they cannot be used on OHPs has always been a struggle. My instinct is to say "if the Holy Spirit inspired it, how can you copyright it?" Or to present it from the other side "If you are claiming that this is your creation and the Holy Spirit did not aid you, do I really want to sing it?"The historical perspective is challenging. Our English language Bibles were 'sold' from the beginning with the income being used to produce more. Many Christian authors have adopted this approach, I think, using the sales of their works to fund further publications. Tyndale was certainly scathing about those who plagiarised his work.The labourer too is worthy of his hire, but I don't see that this means the preacher has the right to go to law if the 'gift' he receives is not up to his expectations. ;-) The Wesley brothers forbad the 'improvement' of their poetry but we now routinely ignore their wishes and modernise them to our heart's content. Perhaps I should just respect the wishes of the Living Water team, and not use their products if I am uncomfortable with their stance.

I can not understand such thing "copyright" in christianity.I can understand "Reproduce and share it free, dont sell it" , "If you have money bye it and support us, if not take it and be blessed"I am not talking here about Ray Comfort, I am talking in general.If you are making something , what is the purpose of it? Is not to be read and heard by as many as it possible? As many as possible to be blessed?This business is shame to christianity! Making money from CD's, DVD's, books...same things that are in the world. Shame on us.This wordly strange thing "business" has crept into the church, and the exuses are "From what the professional musicians and singers will live? or christian concerts"I dont find professional musicians and christian concerts in the NT.If God gave you voice let this voice be blessing! If God put in your heart to make CD make it, He will provide for money. Don't make profit from it. Even they are telling you we have copyright! What a strange thing for me! Copyright in the NT..!?I say again I dont speak about LWM , I dont know the case there.Kire

songs so that they cannot be used on OHPs What is an OHP?In Christ,Doug

We need to discern the information that is being copyrighted. We need to decide if it come from the Holy Spirit and was produced through provisions provided by God or if it is mans ideas produced through the workings of the flesh. I think most can clearly see that what is being taught and produced by Living Waters Ministries is from the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is nothing new. Jesus was the first to use these methods and many throughout history have followed in Jesus' footstep - like John Wesley, Johnathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon and Charley Finney. Living Waters is just modern day proponent of a Biblical principle that has been used by many throughout the ages.If the information provided by Living Waters is Holy Spirit inspired and the ministry is run through the provisions of God then they have no right to copyright it and prohibit free distribution. And more importantly we are under no obligation to comply to this copyright and ban on free distribution. We must obey God first (and God holds the copyright and distribution rights on information he has created and supplied for) and must obey mans laws second. God is very clear that we are not sell information provided by the Holy Spirit regardless of what mans laws say. We are under no obligation to obey a copyright on information from the Holy Spirit and I would urge all to disregard this copyright! And most importantly pray for the corruption that has entered this ministry - that God would remove it or the bring His Judgment upon it.If Ray Comfort comes out and says that these are all his own ideas that he made up and God has had no hand in the provision of Living Waters Ministries - it's all man and flesh and no God, then we may have to take a second look at the situation, but until then, copy and distribute Gods information at will and as zealously as possible. Shame on you Living Waters Ministries