The watchtowers campaign against freedom of views and speech gets noticed!

by Crumpet 17 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Crumpet

  (My apologies if this already got posted by our very own Danny Hazard.)

  http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=8202

  Jehovah's Witnesses Take Action Against Opposing Views

  Published on: March 17th, 2006 12:03am by: dannyhaszard

  ( 0 ) Print This Release | Tell a Friend | Discuss This Press Release

  (OPENPRESS) March 17, 2006 -- This website,www.davidgladden.com has existed for several years providing quotes and supplemental scans of publications and secret internal documents to demonstrate the dubious and morally questionable activities of the Watchtower Society.
  
  For several years the Watchtower Society never took issue with the quotes and scans; however something new was recently added to the web site. The owner of the site posted an internal document from within Watchtower Society that details how they run their branch operations around the world, who writes their anonymous publications, how they control and transfer finances between countries, deal with decent in the organization, and many other revealing topics such as how they hide information in order to avoid liability. In addition to this a standards manual that describes how they write their publications was also make public.
  
  Several months ago after another website, quotes.watchtower.ca, in Canada was sued for making available many direct quotes from Watchtower publications. The function of the website was very simple: Provide readers with a topical index of the beliefs and teachings of the Watchtower Society using nothing but verifiable direct quotes from the Watchtower Society's own publications.
  
  Apparently "Fair Use" is not a concept understood by Jehovah's Witnesses. Peter Mosier, the owner of this website, was not able to afford the legal fees required to fight the lawsuit, so he was forced to settle out of court. The settlement required him to destroy all copies of his website and enforced a gag order against him. The Watchtower Society also took possession of the quotes.watchtower.ca domain name as part of this settlement.
  
  Apparently the Watchtower Society is trying to crush all organized dissenting views on the Internet. Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of an aggressive new campaign similar to the one seen with the Church of Scientology: No public dissenting views will not be tolerated. It seems this time, with the www.davidgladden.com website, the Watchtower Society used Copyright law to eliminate the embarrassing quotes from their publications in addition to embarrassing and potentially incriminating internal documents that were leaked.
  
  Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 the Watchtower society is required to provide the web hosting company with a letter that details all of the alleged copyright violations. This letter is to be written under penalty of perjury. After repeated requests the owner of the website has yet to receive this letter, yet his website was still taken down by the web hosting company. "I believe this was an unlawful take-down action", said David Gladden, the owner of the website. David Gladden added, "I don't understand how the Watchtower Society can claim any monetary losses on their part since Jehovah's Witnesses routinely distribute their copyrighted publications free of charge to the public."

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  Professional Free Press Release News Wire
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  Spectre

  Right on!
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  Crumpet

  By the way I just noticed that the link for Tell a Friend on this newstory is live so might be a good idea to circulate this and also reply back to the newsroom any comments you have on the story.

  Every Little Helps!
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  Clam

  This is excellent. Will there be a general press release of this document? So many people in the West are concerned with freedom of speech rights, ranging from the Islamic cartoons to the Google in China issue. I don't see why a lot of national newspapers wouldn't be interested in this. Some may say that this is about copyright infringement, but that simply fires more debate. Why can't you have your own rhetoric quoted back at you to test your consistency and integrity. If you can't shouldn't you be exposed as a charlatan?
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  Gill

  It's very good that this gets a write up on the internet, but will the written press pick it up and run with it?

  It's a pity that Davids web provider caved in so quickly, but with the money that the Watchtower has to fight its legal battles it's not surprising really.

  The Watchtower has 'a lot' of crap to hide. It may keep sweeping it under the carpet but the smell from it festering away will still seep out and be noticed. The 1914 'Generation' has, to all intents and purposes, come and gone. If the WTBTS keeps trying to hide its predictions of the past, it just shows how ashamed/embarrassed it is of itself.

  The old mags/books/ publications have got to be revealed so that the BS shows up for what it is. No wonder their lawyers are pulling out all the stops on this one.
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  wombat

  The final paragraph of the press release demonstrates the arrogance of the WTS.

  It would appear that they never had a case against Quotes in the first place. Else they would have given their reasons by now. Obviously they had none.

  But who's gonna fight their (free?) in-house lawyers with billions of dollar to back them up?.

  The WTS won the case but lost their credibility.

  When faced with a powerful bully with unlimited back-up, only a fool wouldn't turn away.

  How many JWs stay in the Org because they love it. Or are they scared of the bullying they would face if they left?

  "By their fruits you will know them"
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  James Free

  The WT don't need any more reason than the material posted is copyright.

  Any site in the US, or in countries that are signatories of international copyright law, is subject to closure. The answer is simple though. Have your site hosted in a country that is unfavourable to the WT or has no interest in copyright violations. reexamine.org is such a site, doing a great job.
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  wombat

  James....I am sure that you are right. But here's a quote from the article.

  Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 the Watchtower society is required to provide the web hosting company with a letter that details all of the alleged copyright violations. This letter is to be written under penalty of perjury. After repeated requests the owner of the website has yet to receive this letter, yet his website was still taken down by the web hosting company.

  So....is the WTS embarrassed to use this cowardly defence...or are they just to haughty to respond?

  Them's Caesar's laws mate. (Hey..I know that you aren't supporting them..Don't get me wrong).
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  stillajwexelder

  So glad I downloaded the Branch Manual and all good stuff before it was taken down
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  outnfree

  Could Danny fix the errors in this release? Having worked in public relations before, it is IMPERATIVE that press releases be proofread. Journalists take them far more seriously if they are.

  Errors in Paragraph 2: "deal with dissent" not "decent"; and "was also made public" not "make".

  In Paragraph 3: delete "after" after "Several years ago"

  Paragraph 5: There is a double negative in the sentence: "Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of an aggressive new campaign similar to the one seen with the Church of Scientology: No public dissenting views will not be tolerated." Change to either "No public dissenting views will be tolerated" or "Public dissenting views will not be tolerated."

  Another suggestion for the last sentence in paragraph 5: Change it to read, "It seems this time, with the www.davidgladden.com website, the Watchtower Society used the threat of copyright law violation to eliminate dissemination of contradictory quotes from their publications, in addition to embarrassing and potentially incriminating internal documents that were leaked by several inside sources."

  Paragraph 6: Capitalize the "S" on "society" in the first sentence.

  This press release was a GREAT idea, by the way. Good luck David and Danny!

  Brenda