A popular canon law website will continue to offer its content to the public despite fears that it would have to shut down because of a copyright dispute over its English translation of the Church’s Code of Canon Law. Source: CNA.
The website, CanonLaw.Ninja, owned by American priest Fr Paul Hedman, will be able to continue its operations with a different translation owned by the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland (CLSGBI).
Fr Hedman had shared the Canon Law Society of America’s Code of Canon Law on his website for years before receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the organisation telling him to take that translation of the Code of Canon Law down by March 17. He was also instructed to destroy all copies on the website and all personal copies unless purchased from the CLSA.
Fr Hedman said the British and Irish CLSGBI offered its translation free of charge, as long as their organisation receives proper attribution.
“The Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland has graciously allowed me to use their translation of the Code of Canon Law,” Fr Hedman said in a Tweet on Saturday.
CanonLaw.Ninja, which describes itself as “a resource for both professional and armchair canonists,” includes up-to-date and searchable translations of the Code of Canon Law as well as other documents, such as the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Fr Hedman created the website as a seminarian because the only other online copy of the code, which was on the Vatican’s website, was not up to date and was not searchable.
FULL STORY
Canon law copyright case: Priest’s website stays online thanks to new translation (By Tyler Arnold, CNA)
