Screen Sharing OA Literature

According to the Overeaters Anonymous World Service Office letter regarding Guidance for Transitioning to Online Meetings posted by the Executive Committee OA Board of Trustees on April 22, 2020, “Some OA-approved literature may be reprinted and posted by registered OA groups and service bodies without written permission.

Specifically (according to the official Overeaters Anonymous Copyright Procedures and Guidelines)…

The materials listed below may be reprinted without written permission.

  1. The Twelve Steps of OA
  2. The Twelve Traditions of OA
  3. The Twelve Concepts of OA Service
  4. The OA Preamble
  5. The OA Promise (I Put My Hand in Yours)
  6. The Responsibility Pledge
  7. Fifteen Questions
  8. About OA (flyer)
  9. “Welcome Home” from the Taste of Lifeline, pp. xiii-xvi
  10. Articles from A Step Ahead and the Courier
  11. Individual Lifeline articles for limited personal and group use (may not be recombined into other publications or resold)
  12. Many well-known slogans and sayings (such as “one day at a time,” “easy does it” and the Serenity Prayer) require no approval.

More broadly speaking, “All registered OA groups and service bodies have permission to reprint any OA print material currently on the OA website (downloadable PDF files or text).” This suggests that all free-to-download PDF documents in the oa.org Document Library may be posted.

Apart from the exceptions allowed by the World Service Office, “All OA literature, including digital media, and the OA logo are protected under US copyright law, and that copyright is owned solely by Overeaters Anonymous, Inc. No one, including OA members or service bodies, can legally reprint or reproduce digital media or excerpts from OA literature without written permission from the World Service Office.

This summary was prepared by Bob S. for the OA San Fernando Valley Intergroup July 21, 2020.

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