Copyrighting the Truth?

The TimesOnline has an articled today entitle "Vatican 'cashes in' by putting price on the Pope's copyright". Read it for yourself, but here's some interesting isolated paragraphs:

For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.

A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.

A Vatican spokesman said that the Holy See had to defend itself against “pirated editions”. The move is also aimed at “premature publication”. Journalists accredited to the Vatican are handed papal texts under embargo. The Vatican said that if embargos were broken in future not only would the journalist face sanctions but also his or her publication would face legal action.

Officials said that newspapers would be free to publish extracts from papal documents without charge once they were officially released, but only by “prior agreement”. The rules cover not only encyclicals — the most authoritative papal pronouncements, issued in Latin — but also the Pope’s homilies at his weekly audiences on Wednesdays, and his addresses at Angelus prayers on Sundays.

(Presuming I understand what is happening here) I think this is great news. Sure, on the one hand it might make the dissemination of the pope's words slower - but let's face it: the stream of "advance selections" and other leaked information/speculation about "Deus Caritas Est" has been pretty embarassing and it's about time the Vatican started to plug its leaks.

Perhaps Benedict is a bit tired of hearing about what's going on in the Vatican from outside presses - or worse yet, finding out what his translators are doing in the shadows from the Italian press's Sunday edition.