Question: The Masters say that we can freely use and share the ideas from the teachings. What does this mean in the context of copyrights? What can we use and share from the teachings? And what are the limitations? What exactly are we allowed and not allowed to do?
Answer from Kim Michaels. This answer was given during the 2025 Ukraine Webinar.
Well, first of all, you need to recognize that according to copyright law, you cannot copyright an idea. An idea is not copyrighted. What can be copyrighted is a specific worded description of an idea. A poem, for example, that talks about love. You cannot copyright love, but you can copyright the poem that talks about love. This is one thing.
But the other thing is that, you know, the majority of the teachings are available for free on the websites. And they are copyrighted. But the reason why it says copyright is because I do not necessarily and the masters do not necessarily want people to just copy the teachings as they are on the website and start publishing them in books, for example. But if you are not taking the actual words, you can pretty much do whatever you want. And, I would even say as such that if you are not making money on something, you can do whatever you want with the teachings.
And with that, I mean, let’s say you go on the Ascended Master Light website, and you took every dictation by Saint Germain, and you put them in a book, and you publish that book. In that case, I would expect you to sign a publishing agreement with me and pay me some small royalty, like people do with the other books. But if you just want to publish excerpts here and there, you are free to do whatever you want.
If, let’s say, you, for example, want to take some of the ideas about psychology and use them because you are a coach or a counselor or whatever, you are free to do that. You do not even have to say where the ideas come from. It is not like I need to get credit for it. I am just saying, you are free to use the ideas. If you use the exact worded teachings in a way to make money that is commercialized, let’s say it is a publisher, then I expect you to make some kind of agreement with me.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if a professional publishing house wanted to publish some of the teachings, I would expect them to sign an agreement with me and pay me a normal author’s royalty. But, if you, as a private person, are using the teachings, publishing them on websites or videos or whatever, there are really no limitations to what you are allowed to do. And you can, if you feel it is appropriate, you can say where it comes from, but you do not have to. I know people who are working in counseling or coaching, and they have taken some of the ideas, incorporated them and written about them in books, and that is perfectly fine, because for that field, it is not appropriate to say these come from ascended masters. The masters are not trying to get credit for the ideas, they are trying to get the ideas out. That is the main thing. And I am not needing to get credit either, unless, as I said, it is some commercial venture where you take the exact words. I hope this answers the question.
Copyright © 2025 Kim Michaels