Watchtower Sends Legal Notice To Website Regarding Coyright Infringement

by Bangalore 94 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  vilot

  "Do you think Jehovah or Jesus would protect the Bible using copyright laws? Still the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures that is included on the Watchtower Library is under copyright. Jehovah’s Witnesses have copyrighted the Bible. While the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society have not written the Bible, how can they copyright it? Would any Christian believe that God or Jesus will approve of someone that tries to hinder others to read God’s word?"

  This is priceless...they show up at your door trying to get you to read their ACCURATE translation of the Bible and you can not even post quotes from the New World Translation of the Bible...
• 

  hamsterbait

  PRICELESS!!!

  They are obviously doing this to strengthen the REIGN OF TERROR among those they are trying to keep IN.

  It is no longer about progress, but entrapment.

  HB
• 

  hamsterbait

  WitnessAid UK was closed down just because the WT threatened the ISP with a Law suit. Dont know of it is still active in Australia...

  It was actually a very DAMNING expose of the Witchtower religion.

  HB
• 

  jabberwock

  "Jehovah’s Witnesses have copyrighted the Bible."

  No, they haven't. The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is copyrighted. Copyrighting a translation of the Bible is not uncommon.

  "you can not even post quotes from the New World Translation of the Bible..."

  I wouldn't go that far. Briefly quoting and commenting on Watchtower publications would probably be considered fair use.

  The blog mentioned above, posted scriptures (from the NWT) and commentary (from the Watchtower magazine) that was printed in Examining the Scriptures Daily. By posting each day's scripture and commentary, the entire publication would be posted in the course of a year.

  I don't think this would be considered fair use.
• 

  hotspur

  While the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society have not written the Bible, how can they copyright it?

  But they have re-written it so that's easy to claim copyright!
• 

  AK - Jeff

  I did not have time to go look at the link - are they suing 'brothers' in this case? Witnesses who are posting the daily text for other Jw's to see?

  While that might be a legal issue to the lawyers - isn't it counterproductive to the witness cause to alienate Jw's with such frivolity?

  Jeff
• 

  Heaven

  This is good to know. When they come to the door next time I'll tell them that I don't want to be sued for copyright infringements so I don't want any of their material. After all, if I gave it to someone else or wrote an essay on it or spoke to someone about it, or sold it to someone I have the potential for being sued. No thanks!
• 

  MissingLink

  If the owner of the site is in good standing, he is therefore a "PUBLISHER" of the Watchtower organization. Surely the publishers of a magazine should have distribution rights for their own material?!
• 

  JWoods

  I don't think this particular use would be considered fair use.

  From what I have seen, the websites that have been challenged by the WTBTS on copyright issues contain all, or nearly all, of Watchtower publications and add very little or no commentary. It seems that these would be hard to defend on fair use grounds.

  Still, I can't understand why Examining the Scriptures Daily is not available through the watchtower.org website.

  On the other hand, if their heart were true - then WHY would they object if someone spread further their "good news"?
• 

  undercover

  If the site was providing, on a daily basis, the text as taken from the Daily Text book, it probably is a violation of copyright laws.

  Yea, all the questions arise...like how can you copyright the Bible...aren't JWs supposed to be giving life's water free...blah, blah, blah, but we all know that this a publishing company under the guise of religion. This preliminary action alludes to how serious they take their copyright infringement. It's not about Publishing the Good News.

  I'm sympathetic to their plight, but if you're going to mess around with a publishing company that has hordes of lawyers, you need to make sure that you don't infringe on copyright and trademark laws.

  The one good thing that might come of this is that since the site's owner posted a copy of the letter and his response, maybe it might get some JWs that did use the site to wonder why the Society needs to be so hard-headed about protecting copyright instead of being grateful for someone who wants to help build up faith. Maybe...