When should credit be given when using someone else’s material?
Question:
Brother Hamilton,
I first want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your efforts to serve God and proclaim His word.
Although we have never met, your postings and sermon outlines have assisted me in my studies and in my efforts to teach others for several years.
On many occasions, I use your outlines or the outlines of others to study and put together lessons for the congregation here. In some cases, I present the lesson very close to the outlines, but in other cases, I use the outline but make multiple substantial additions or alterations in the process of putting the lesson together. I try to always give credit to anyone whose work I use or whose work helps me, and I will often give credit to you or others whose outlines I use in sermons or classes. At some point, it occurred to me that in my efforts to express my appreciation for the work of others, I did not want to give the impression that everything that is being taught is from the outlines. I have now taken to saying something along the lines of, “ I want to thank brother __________ for his outline that was used in preparing this lesson, but I don’t want you to blame him for everything I am about to say.”
Given your long history of teaching and preaching, I wanted your advice on a few things:
- When using an outline or sermon notes prepared by another to put together a sermon what is the best way to recognize their efforts?
- Is there a point at which, when using an outline or other study to put together a sermon or lesson that has many additions or changes, most people would prefer not to be mentioned because the lesson being presented has been amended or altered to too great an extent?
- My last question, is something I had not thought about before, but if a sermon or lesson is prepared very closely to another’s outline would it be best not to post recordings of that particular sermon or class, or is this commonly done?
I would value any advice you may have. I may be overthinking the issue, but I know how much work goes into teaching and preparing lessons, and while I want to make use of the trove of excellent outlines and studies prepared by the brethren, I want to do it properly and respectfully.
If there is any other advice or some common issue I have omitted, I would appreciate any guidance you might offer.
Thank you again for your stand for the truth.
Answer:
Since all preachers are teaching God's words, there is a sense that none of us can claim that our lessons are truly original. However, we each have our own ways of looking at God's Word.
Many of the ideas I have for lessons come from articles that I've collected over the years. Usually, there is some point or a way of approaching an issue that I particularly like. Often, I will look through my collection when I need an idea and find two or three articles that I blend. The result is usually not like any of the original writer's works and since it is significantly different, I won't mention the sources of inspiration.
If I particularly like the way a point was worded, I'll quote the author and mention in the lesson who made the statement. In my notes, I will record where I found the quote. This is proper etiquette and you will find the writers of the New Testament doing it. For examples of quoting look at Romans 10:25-29. Even though Paul would sometimes adjust the wording to fit his particular point, the source is credited. Legally, this is what the copyright laws in most countries require.
If I follow the basic flow of thoughts from another author, I will put a note at the bottom of my outline stating where I found the idea. Generally, it will say "Based on so-and-so's article titled ..." I usually don't mention it during the lesson but if anyone asks, I will tell them where the idea came from.
It is rare that I directly follow another person's outline. I personalize things for the way I think, add verses that I think might fit the topic well, or remove verses that I don't believe prove the point solidly. But in the few cases where it is strongly based on someone else's work, I often will start by saying, "I read an interesting lesson the other week by so-and-so that made points that I think we need to hear."
In my own case, I don't care if other people borrow my lessons or present them in their congregation. I'm not out to make money from my writings. I'm here to teach the gospel. I do get annoyed when people take something that someone else wrote and then try to pass it off as something they created. That isn't being honest. The pages on La Vista's website are marked giving permission to use the material as a person sees fit, so long as the original creator is credited in some way.
I'm glad to hear that the efforts here are benefiting others there.
Question:
Brother Hamilton,
Answer:
There is a simple reason for the sermon outlines. Search engines cannot index the content of audio and video files. You would have to be very detailed about what you titled your lessons to even get a referral from someone's search. The outlines are what is important, the audio files that accompany the sermons are just a bonus because some prefer to listen to lessons while they are doing other things.
I'm like you. I don't watch or listen to lessons very often. I much prefer to read. Thus, I have our website designed with reading in mind. It actually doesn't cost me much time to post the outlines. My word processor (WordPerfect) automatically generates the code needed on a web page to display an outline. I just copy and paste it into the right place.
