Without going into too much detail…

• Copyright is regulated by national law in each country and internationally under the

Berne Copyright Convention. Osho commented on the Berne Convention in his public talks.

• Copyright protection is automatic and ‘arises in an original work of authorship from the time the work is first created or fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which that work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated. A work is put in a tangible form, for example, when a literary work is typed or written or a piece of music captured on tape.  http://inventors.about.com/cs/lessonplans/a/student_primer_4.htm
• No registration needed for copyright to exist.
• Copyright protection lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years from the end of the year of his/her death in Osho’s case, from 1990. 

For further details go to: US Copyright Office: http://www.loc.gov/copyright  or look for alternative sites regarding copyright information in your own country.

Osho’s work is protected in two ways:

First copyright protection of his work is automatic at the point of creation. Both published and unpublished works are protected by copyright. In effect Osho’s talks are protected under copyright from the time he spoke those words and they were recorded on his behalf by the foundation.

Secondly because Osho assigned all his copyright to a foundation, all his works were registered during his lifetime in India (1970’s) and later in the USA on behalf of the Foundation.

Osho confirmed his assignment on many occasions, including under oath in a copyright case that was argued in America during his stay in the USA and the court decided that copyrights of all works of Osho are with the Foundation.

Since 1985 Osho International Foundation, Switzerland is the assignee and registered copyright owner of all the Works by Osho as well as the owner of other intellectual property including all works contributed over the years by sannyasins (music, translations, design etc.), photos, art, images related to Osho and/or Osho International Foundation and trademarks.

All of Osho’s works published by the different foundations and publishers from around the world carry clear copyright information and Osho personally received copies of each book for his personal library.

The Foundation takes care of the original archives and is charged with making his work available through publishing and licensing.

Today more than 250 publishers carry works by Osho under licenses from Osho International Foundation, in 58 languages. It is also part of his vision that the royalties from the sale of his books would be used to fund the expansion of his work. Osho never gave his work to the public for free., He specifically entrusted the works to a Foundation with detailed instructions regarding the publications and licensing of his works.

All details regarding Osho’s assignment of his copyright, including individual registrations over several decades and related documents are on public record at the US Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The Foundation also deposited original copies of all of Osho’s books and original copies of the complete audio and video archives at the Library of Congress.

Osho International Foundation is actively publishing and licensing these works throughout the world.

If you are interested in any of the material or works, permission for reprint or any other format of use or publishing or licensing, please contact us. oshointernational@oshointernational.com

A historic overview over the development of the publications of Osho’s works can be found here [ link to OSHO Times article]