Cite as 61 Fed.Appx. 538 (10th Cir. 2003)
nized under Oklahoma law. This appeal arises out of the parties’ dispute as to the present validity of Urantia Foundation’s copyright in The Urantia Book, a document comprising the scriptural basis for the Urantia movement. The history of the composition of The Urantia Book, or such of that history as is available, bears directly upon the resolution of this case.
In approximately 1900, an unknown patient (“the Conduit”) sought psychiatric help from Dr. William Sadler.[1] The Conduit behaved strangely in his sleep, and during sessions with the Conduit, Dr. Sadler became convinced that the Conduit was channeling “celestial personalities.” At some point, the Conduit began presenting Dr. Sadler with handwritten “papers,” purportedly consisting of the fruits of his communion with these celestial beings. Sometime later in the course of his treatment, Dr. Sadler opened up his sessions with the Conduit to a group of relatives that referred to itself as “The Contact Commission.” During its sessions with the Conduit, the Contact Commission prepared stenographic notes of the Conduit’s celestial dialogs, but it destroyed most of them. The notes formed no part of The Urantia Book.
In 1924, after approximately twenty years of treatment and generating “papers,” the Conduit announced that he would compose The Urantia Book. He solicited questions from the Contact Commission to present to the celestial beings during his psychiatric sessions. Dr. Sadler formed a subgroup of the Contact Commission (“the Forum”) to prepare these questions. Between 1935 and 1942, in response to these questions, the Conduit delivered a foreword and 196 handwritten “papers” that together constitute The Urantia Book. The Contact Commission reviewed the papers and typed them. It did not change their arrangement or edit them in any way other than to correct spelling and capitalization errors. It also destroyed all documents related to the questions presented to the Conduit. The Conduit was never compensated for his efforts in creating The Urantia Book.
In 1950, Urantia Foundation was formed in Illinois as a charitable trust. In 1955, the Conduit permitted The Urantia Book to be published, and later the same year Urantia Foundation published The Urantia Book under notice of copyright. Urantia Foundation registered its copyright in 1956 and currently holds the original and the 1983 renewal certificates as The Urantia Book’s “author”. In 1999, Michael Foundation, a non-profit corporation chaired by third-party defendant and appellee Harry McMullan III, himself a disaffected former adherent of the Urantia movement, published Jesus—A New Revelation, which reprints verbatim seventy-six of the 196 papers constituting The Urantia Book.
This litigation commenced when Michael Foundation and McMullan filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a declaration that Urantia Foundation’s copyright in The Urantia Book was invalid or, in the alternative, that their book did not infringe upon Urantia Foundation’s copyright. Urantia Foundation asserted numerous counterclaims against Michael Foundation and
- ↑ No one knows who the Conduit was, but the parties agree that he composed the text of The Urantia Book. Throughout its briefs, Urantia Foundation refers to him as “the subject”; Michael Foundation refers to him as “Writer.” Given that the terms the parties have selected to refer to the composer of The Urantia Book carry overtones suggestive of the principles of copyright law underlying this case, and that his status as a conduit for celestial revelation is not in dispute, we refer to him by what we hope to be a copyright-neutral term.
