Pali Canon Online

Long, Middle, Connected, and Numerical Discourses

Due to copyright complaint from Wisdom Publication, these discourses have been unpublished from this website. Wisdom Publication offers a few free suttas here: http://wisdompubs.org/collections/wisdom-academics?f%5b0%5d=field_collection%253Aparents_all%3A32

If you'd like to obtain the full copy, our recommendation is to search online in websites such as http://www.filestube.com, where users around the world share files & links - search for terms such as "bhikkhu bodhi." (DISCLAIMER: Pali Canon Online is NOT affiliated with Files Tube in any way)

If you need guidance on how to search for the full digital copy to be downloaded for offline reading, please use the feedback form or send an email to webmaster[at]palicanon.org.

What's Buddhist's view on Copyright? As well-put by Thanissaro Bhikkhu in his Buddhist Monastic Code I Chapter 4:

Infringement of copyright. The international standards for copyright advocated by UNESCO state that infringement of copyright is tantamount to theft. However, in practice, an accusation of copyright infringement is judged not as a case of theft but as one of "fair use," the issue being the extent to which a person in possession of an item may fairly copy that item for his/her own use or to give or sell to another person without compensating the copyright owner. Thus even a case of "unfair use" would not fulfill the factors of effort and object under this rule, in that — in creating a copy — one is not taking possession of an item that does not belong to one, and one is not depriving the owners of something already theirs. At most, the copyright owners might claim that they are being deprived of compensation owed to them, but as we have argued above, the principle of compensation owed does not rightly belong under this rule. In the terminology of the Canon, a case of unfair use would fall under either of two categories — acting for the non-gain of the copyright owners or wrong livelihood — categories that entail a dukkaṭa under the general rule against misbehavior (Cv.V.36). They would also make one eligible for a disciplinary transaction, such as reconciliation or banishment (see BMC2, Chapter 20), which the Community could impose if it saw the infringement as serious enough to merit such a punishment.

 

Thank you for your understanding... and remember, the true meaning of the suttas can only be validated through personal experience in Satipatthana (Vipassana) meditation.

You are here: Home Sutta Pitaka Long, Middle, Connected, and Numerical Discourses