electronic rights

Phone call this morning from friend and colleague, Maureen Sier in Glasgow. Maureen is Interfaith Development Officer for the Scottish Government (that's her speaking at the launch of National Inter Faith Week for Leicester and Leicestershire, Mon 16 Nov at County Hall, Glenfield). One of the local authorities in Scotland with which she's been working is interested in purchasing the rights to the leaflets and banners that Leicester Council of Faiths has produced and adapting it for use in their own area. We're able to sell the electronic rights to the leaflets, which allows the purchaser to adapt it to their own circumstances. We estimated the cost of the leaflets to be around £10,000 all in. We sell the eletronic rights for a mere £450. The advantages in buying these texts from the Council of Faiths is that:

• all the research and writing has been done;
• the treatment given to the faiths arises from questions asked of, or asked by, professional contacts;
• the writing is in a consistent tone or voice;
• all eight member faith communities are treated in an even-handed manner;
• copy is provided in easily digestible chunks;
• an equal amount of copy is devoted to each faith and to each topic;
• the language is "outward-facing" (i.e. not for practitioners of the faiths, talking about themselves to themselves);
• the material is focused on practical issues that might arise on a day-to-day basis;
• it's been contributed to by practising, knowledgeable and experienced members of faith communities;
• it's been approved by authoritative representatives of faith communities

Anyone buying the texts like this has the rights for multiple use, and is free to amend it to different purposes and circumstances without coming back to the Council of Faiths for further permission. All we ask is that the purchaser doesn't resell or gift the rights to anyone else and that they give a simple line credit to say that the items using the text are based on material orginally produced by Leicester Council of Faiths.

So far, these electronic rights have been bought by East Midlands Ambulance Service, Leicestershire Constabulary and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust.

That slogan, "We have faith in Leicester!" is very adaptable.