by Lady Lee 21 Replies latest jw friends
burntheships
I'm not sure where the server is or if it matters. JWD was started by Simon when he lived in the UK. But really he could have used a server anywhere in the world. Then he moved to Canada. I don't know if that means the site is now Candain. I don't know that he has changed servers if that makes any difference.
My website is hosted by Tripod. I think that is based in the US but I could be wrong. I have no idea in this age of the Internet how they decide such things
Sam Really They own the books They get to decide who to give copies to. Distibuting the book in any form without their permission breaks copyright laws. it doesn't matter that they give other books away for free
Scully and blondie - thanks for the additional info
Just found out that Tripod is US-based so my website www.lee_hardiman.tripod.com is based in the US However, everything written on th esite is mine and I am a Canadian. So does that mean the site is US and follows US rules. I think yes but I could be wrong
No data for JWN BTW
Sam Whiskey:
Strange how the WT&BTS can "allow" you to download whole books directly from their website. You can share any of these books via the web. But....you cannot share books which are distributed in secrecy but which books are not to be shared publicly? I'm confused. How can the Society sanction the sharing and downloading of some books, but not others?
Anybody? I'm sincerely confused on this and not trying to be a smart aleck (sp?)...
The way I understand it, is that the WTS deems the Flock book, the Branch manual, the Pioneer manual to be on the same level as confidential internal documents / memos that a company might issue to its managers and directors.
That doesn't mean that unsafe, unethical or illegal practices by said company should remain confidential. That's why the law protects whistleblowers who act in the interest of public safety.
Well explained, Lady Lee. It is illegal to copy and upload a WTBS book without their permission, unless it is for a very old book and the copyright has expired and is now in the public domain, like the books of Russell. And yes, you can quote from it if you are discussing it (Fair use rarely allows for more that 10% of the original).
As an example some will remember the Watchtower Quotes website. It contained no commentary, just quotes so that people could read what the JW's have written and make up their own mind. Great idea, but not legal. Because there was no commentary, the site could be sued for breach of copyright. If there had been extensive commentary it would have been legal to quote from the literature.
"This is very different than how the WTS uses quotations. They rarely let the reader know where they got their information from. This is intellectual dishonesty and copyright infringement. And just because they do it doesn't mean we can do the same to them. They can come after us if we take things too far."
Very well said - and, not only do they engage in intellectual dishonesty by not quoting the source, but after quotes have been researched, as in the Creation book, it has also been demonstrated that they like to misquote out of context so that it seems an author has one opinion that supports their contention when in fact they have another.
Like Scully said Every company has a right to their policy and procedure manuals. Usually employees know about the book and are supposed to read it. Few do. In the case of the Witnesses they don't know these books exists. I was married to an elder and didn't know about these books.
And really is there a need for JWs to have this book. It's boring like all their other books. The only thing really different is what they get to write in the columns
But that isn't really the topic here.
My goal was to give you an idea about copyright laws and some general guidelines to foillow when you are writing about WT material and using quotations legally
And really is there a need for JWs to have this book. It's boring like all their other books. The only thing really different is what they get to write in the columns
Is there value for one of Jehovah's Witnesses facing a Judicial Committee, to have access to the policies and procedures outlined in the Elder's book that will seriously impact their life, including those procedures that elders are specifically instructed not to inform them of?
Is there value for a country like Bulgaria having clear examples of written policies showing the Watchtower's duplicity and deceit when it comes to dealing with JW's who choose to have a blood transfusion?
Is there value for attorneys involved in child molestation cases being able to use the elder's book to prove the Watchtower's claims of clergy confidentially when dealing abusers invalid?
Yes there is value in those cases. But those issues are being discussed on other threads
Getting back to some of what you can and cannot do when quoting a piece of work.
You cannot correct their spelling mistakes. If you find spelling mistakes and you want to make your audience know it wasn't your typo you ad "[sic]" after the mistake. The person's words stand as they are, mistakes and all.
Sometimes for clarity you need to change a word. This is only done for clarity. Let's say the author is talking about someone and the reader of the original work already knows who the piece is about. The sentence you want to quote simpley says "He. . . " Well your audience won't necessarily know who "He" is so you might add in:
[The mayor]
The square brackets let your reader know that "The mayor" is not what the original text says but you have changed it for clarity.
One other thing about changing the text before we move on is the use of ". . . " Sometimes you don't want the whole chapter or the whole sentence. You can take put a part of the text and put ". . . " in its place. However, you cannot do this if it changes the meaning of what is being said. The Watchtower Society has many times deleted parts of a quotation which radicaly changed the original meaning of the text. This is intellectual dishonesty.
Thanks Lady Lee,
Your clear explanations, added to by others, for which also thanks, mean we can quote and comment in future in line with what you said , and not infringe Copyright.
As to parody, I would love for the WT to take me. or any other poster to Court because we have made them look silly !
It would be a wonderful opportunity to show the World that they are silly, we did not make them look that way.
