A Course In Miracles, Something for Everyone

My first blog post here. I feel that it's important to call attention to the Copyright page that I wrote for this site. It was hard to do, write, own my own work, and expect that it will have value for others. I delayed writing it, but told myself I couldn't post anything else until it was up there.

It's done finally and I'm glad. I think I made the right decision in putting the Creative Commons 3.0 license on the site. I may relax the 3.0 status on some parts of the site at some other time, but, for now, the 3.0 license basically decriminalizes what people will do anyway: copy. And I thank Cory Doctorow for introducing me to the concept.

I wish that the whole matter wasn't controversial at all, but when you look around at what's out there, you realize that people are still divided over it. Some sites infer the subject, some don't mention it, but you know they wouldn't be out there at all on the web if the copyright on A Course In Miracles hadn't been overturned. There are many teachers, and they are all needed. There is something for everyone.

A title is not copyrightable, but the title, A Course In Miracles, and its acronym, ACIM, had been trademarked. Both trademarks were overturned in 2004. I did not know that at the time i was working on the Notebook file of The Miracles Journal, A Course In Miracles Notebook. I added "A Course In Miracles Notebook" after I started the web site and learned that the title was no longer trademarked.

I wonder if the original group–Helen, Bill, Ken, and Judy–would have used a Creative Commons license, if such a thing had been available back in 1975? There's no way of knowing now, and neither does it matter, but I do recall reading that, about the Course, Helen said, "It's for whoever wants it."

Everyone is on the way, but each on his own path. If we do not judge one as either good or bad, we see that there is something for everyone. If we take away time, we see that we are all there.