1. That the manuscript is submitted as an original work by the author.

2. That copyright and ownership shall be held and retained by the author with all rights reserved by the author.

3. That permission is granted by the author to International Publications Service for the express purpose that it may distributed the manuscript and art work under the International Publication Service Copyright to the representatives of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

4. That the representatives of the IMB may store in a retrieval system, translate, edit, adapt, publish and print the manuscript in the areas of assigned service.

5. It is agreed that the permission granted by the author to IPS excludes the publication or printing of the manuscript for distribution within the United States of America.

6. Permission is granted for IPS and the IMB to store the manuscript on and distribute the manuscript from the computer systems and archival systems they use to distribute the manuscript to representatives of the IMB or those assisting in their work.

7. That the author may at anytime revoke and withdraw any or all of the above permissions granted to IPS and the IMB by sending a letter to IPS stating their desire.

 
1. That the manuscript is submitted as an original work by the author.

This means that you are telling us that this is a written work that you wrote. The Idea may not be completely original but that what you are sending was done by you. If there is some part based on someone else's work then you have mentioned that on the copyright page.

2. That copyright and ownership shall be held and retained by the author with all rights reserved by the author.

This means that even though you give us and other IMB missionaries the right to use, share, translate, and print your materials it is still your material. If you publish a book through most publishers you are required to sell your copyright to the publisher. We don't work like that. Your work should be your work.

3. That permission is granted by the author to International Publications Service for the express purpose that it may distributed the manuscript and art work under the International Publication Service Copyright to the representatives of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

This says that you know and agree that we are going to share your work with other representatives that work with the IMB. The reason you and others have to register to download the manuscripts is because we want to protect our manuscripts and yours too.

4. That the representatives of the IMB may store in a retrieval system, translate, edit, adapt, publish and print the manuscript in the areas of assigned service.

This mean that you are giving your permission for the other IMB personnel to:

• keep a copy of your work on their computer.
• have your work translated into another language.
• make changes to your work that they need to make to make your work fit their culture or their programs of work.
• publish and print copies of your work for them and their people to use in their locations of work.

5. It is agreed that the permission granted by the author to IPS excludes the publication or printing of the manuscript for distribution within the United States of America.

This means that you are giving your permission for IMB personnel to use your work anywhere in the world but not in the USA. Why? Because, someday you may want to publish or sell  your work in the USA. We believe that you are making your work available to us and other IMB personnel so that they can use it to bring the lost of the world to the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. As representatives of the IMB our primary focus is the lost outside the USA. We believe that is were you meant for us to be able to use your material.

Does this mean that IMB personnel can't print the work in the USA? No! It means that they can't print your work anywhere in the world with the intention of using it in the USA. The issue is where they plan on using your work. They can't use it in the USA! There may be times where it is easier or cheaper for IMB personnel to print your work in the USA and then take it into their country with their stuff. You are giving permission for them to do that. But, they still can't distribute your work in the USA.

6. Permission is granted for IPS and the IMB to store the manuscript on and distribute the manuscript from the computer systems and archival systems they use to distribute the manuscript to representatives of the IMB or those assisting in their work.

This sentence is because we have just said in sentence 5 that your work can't be distributed in the USA. In this sentence you are giving the IMB and IPS permission to keep and distribute your work on and from the IMB computers and the other computers we use that ARE located in the USA.  This way, our keeping and distributing your work from our computers in the USA is the ONLY exception to sentence 5.

7. That the author may at anytime revoke and withdraw any or all of the above permissions granted to IPS and the IMB by sending a letter to IPS stating their desire.

This means that if at sometime in the future you want us to stop distributing your work we will. We just need you to tell us and give us about 30 days to get it off our web site. If you were to decide that you wanted to sell or publish your work through another publisher in the USA, we want you to be able to do that. Most publishers will require you to stop any other distribution of the work before they will buy it. So we want to make sure you know that you will be able to do that.

This means that if IMB personnel in "Faraway, Place" translate your work into the "Huh" language it will be copyrighted in your name in that language. It means that it will be your property even though they translated it and produced it with no cost to you. But, it also means that the IMB personnel working with the people who speak the "Huh" language will be allowed to use the "Huh" translation of your work for as long as they need it. 

Signed James R. Brock
Date
For International Publications Services

Signed
Date You enter the date here.>>
Author You enter your name here.>>

Usually, we do these agreements by E-mail. If you send us a work that we want to distribute we will send you a copy of the agreement with the blanks filled in with your name and the title of the work.. Then you "sign" it by filling in your name and date at the bottom and send it back to us. We will the put in our date and send it back to you. At that point the agreement is signed.