Attitude Question

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Greetings In Jesus Name,

On 2/1/98 I (Floyd E. Avery) in a post entitled "Christian Attitudes"
wrote the following:

> I would like to ask a question about the Christian's attitude about
copyright material.

I think most people missed my point (assuming there was one). Please
allow me to try again to ask the question. This may be lengthy but I
hope you will take the time.

First let me say that several people sent me private mail that displayed
a very good "Christian" attitude.

Then some sent me private mail and tried to explain the copyright law to
me. Our attorney where I work has tried to explain it to me when I sign
license agreements. I am not asking about the law. I am asking about our
attitude. I have found that my attitude is a good indication as to
whether I have assimilated God's Word. When God's Word "controls" my
"stinking" attitude, then I know He has me under His control.

I put a web page up on my ISP. I wrote very little of it. I wrote a
welcome and that Jesus is the answer to all of our needs. I then stated
that we need to be saved and summarized the steps that lead to
salvation. From that point on, I used tracts that are on the internet. I
did not edit the text but I did add some hyperlinks to make navigation
easy. I used a standard statement that stated : THIS TRACT NUMBER XXXX
IS COPYRIGHTED BY XXX. YOU MAY OBTAIN THIS AND OTHER HELPFUL LITERATURE
FROM and then listed the name and address of the publisher.
I laid the pages out as a Bible study on the plan of salvation. I fixed
the page so that people searching words like loneliness, depression etc.
would find it. I received several replies on it.

Then I received a post from a Oneness Christian that advised me that I
was in violation of the U.S. copyright law and that I could be
prosecuted. The post said that I am the same as a thief when I use other
people's material without their permission. I have not been called a
thief in a long time. I took the page down and then looked at my
attitude. I am now working on a new page. I will not give myself credit
nor will I use any material that requires me to give credit to a person.
If I do use any other material, I will give the name and address of the
publisher.

Help me to understand. If a person wishes to keep their work private,
that is ok. If the material is proprietary it should be protected. (You
don't see much of this material on the internet without having to use a
password and access code.)  But when you read something about the
Apostolic plan of salvation, you think they wish ever sinner in the
world could see this. The truth is, there are some (and I don't know how
many) that put their work on the internet so everyone can see what they
wrote but you can't show it to a sinner unless you tell them who wrote
it. Some did tell me that I could link to their site for the material,
but when you allow a reader to leave, they may not come back. That would
be ok but you loose that personal contact. Someone who is lonely and
hurting finds your site and you are going to hand them off to someone
else?

Now for my question and some of you may wish to answer by private mail.
Just remember that I love everybody on this list and I will read
everything you send me that doesn't contain profanity. And thank God
this is a clean list. If I wrote an outstanding presentation on Oneness
Salvation and then put it on the internet so you all could see it but I
said you can't put it on your server and show it to your friends, WOULD
MY ATTITUDE BE RIGHT? I know we are not to judge, so don't judge me but
please give me your opinion about my attitude. This is a moot question
because I am a poor writer and not likely to write a great work. Whe I
get to Heaven and worship Jesus for a few million years, I am going to
ask Him to make me a good writer.

I love you all
Floyd E. Avery
feavery@prysm.net