IP and God's Laws

In God’s Laws, there are two essential periods observed in economics. The first is personal debt; the limit was seven years — sabbatical. The second was systemic debt, limited to fifty years — Jubilee. The second is well understood and desperately needed in modern economic systems. Within every economic system, there must be a debt reset, a total write-off, every fifty years at the longest.
The first is not so well understood, but if properly applied, could obviate need for the second.
By no means should we read the Hebrew code of law from a Western literalist approach. Hebrew language was inherently symbolic; readers were expected to absorb the expressed image as a manifestation of something deeper, much more difficult to convey in simple terms. The Law was for simpletons; adults were expected to meditate and grasp the heart and soul of things. The Law was not legislation but indication of how the Lawgiver thought, what He demanded of us personally. God held people accountable to Him personally, as would any lesser ruling human lord.
In Hebrew intellectual culture, a typical reading of the Law was expansive. Not so much in the particulars as in the underlying concepts. The image of seven as the number of sacred things is too ancient to trace. Very early we find the expression “to seven oneself” as a figure of speech for making a solemn vow. We see it in the agreement Jacob had with his uncle Laban, several centuries before Moses.
It was a common Ancient Near Eastern concept that individual servitude of any sort was limited to seven years maximum. If the exchange of goods and services could not break even in seven years, it was wrong to consider making any kind of deal. If seven years couldn’t pay for it, something was deeply wrong with the situation. Only after the seven years and the debt was considered settled could there be a consideration of longer terms of service for entirely different reasons.
Times have changed, but the moral fabric of the universe has not. Any economy which can see individuals saddled with debt more than seven years is an evil economy. That economy is the enemy of God. As a fundamental concept of moral law itself, it is expansive in application to all things related to the economy.
While the Hebrew culture would find the notion of copyright repulsive in the first place, holding monopoly rights to profit from any intellectual property beyond seven years is most certainly a sin. This applies to anything published in print, analog or digital format. The whole concept is an attack on social stability, paving an open highway to Hell.
We as Christian Mystics cannot engage in activism as a means of change, at least activism as commonly defined in modern Western politics. It’s one thing to raise consciousness, to proclaim a call for repentance and pointing out sin. This we do with unlimited ardor, but we do not pressure people beyond giving notice. It must of necessity be voluntary because we do not have a binding covenant before God for a legal system allowing us to use any kind of force. The fundamental Law of Noah only goes so far, applying itself to the household alone. While God meant for that to cover everything in any society, the enforcement is in the hands of God.
In our current context, we would first need an extensive period of revival and cultural change. It would mean taking a path so completely different, few can even contemplate. Something like this has to grow up in the hearts of the population at large. People have to place themselves willingly under the proper expressions of authority He revealed to this world. It is a testimony against our culture that virtually no one can conceive of God’s system of government. Under that Law of Noah, we who observe it wait upon His hand to guide us through the process. He has shown a restraint we must observe, and accept the answer which may well be, “Not here, not now.”
Obey the driving hand of God in your service to His glory. Do what is necessary to please Him in your own calling. We as Christian Mystics should call for an end to extended copyright — past seven years. We should be willing to suffer whatever losses fall upon when we decline to enforce His standards on those who do not submit to our leadership in His Laws. On the other hand, we are also not bound by every particular of evil human laws. We are bound to the conscience Our Lord burned into us by His personal Presence.