No TMS !

Derrick

Not only is it forbidden to post the TMS on the web, but it is even forbidden to distribute it via your private email!

Letter from the Legal Department at Patterson] dated December 5, 2001:

http://www.eusty.co.uk/notms.htm

:-[Letterhead from the Legal Department at Patterson]
December 5, 2001
Dear Brother *******:
Thank you for removing Watch Tower's copyrighted material from your Web site in response to our letter dated October 19, 2001. We note, however, that you now make this material available to individuals who make requests by electronic mail. Please note the following statement in our previous letter: "Copyright infringement occurs when one copies and distributes (italics added) copyrighted material without the copyright holder's permission." Thus, the sending of this material by electronic means is not permissible. Therefore, we ask that you cease this practice.
Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated. Please accept an expression of our warm Christian love and greetings.
Your brother,
(signature of the General Counsel)
__________________________________
(-Underlining added to quotation-)

The brother who posted this web page provides a thought-provoking comment to support the Society's right to control private email communications in this regard:

``There are many arguments for and against this decision, but at the end of the day as True Christians we should follow the directions of "The Faithful and Discrete Slave".''

I urge Kent Steinhaug to comply with the Society's order from its Legal Counsel, considering that the Bible clearly points to the Society has having final authority over such matters! ;-) (Sorry, I can't find the supporting scriptures that connect them to the faithful and discreet slave parable in the book of Matthew, but at the risk of sounding like an old Ragu Spagetti Sauce commercial I'm assured by the elders that "it's in there" ... if you "read between the lines"!)

Of course, the underlying issue is copyright law and not because the Society is afraid that outsiders will misunderstand the TMS material, right? In the spirit of openness, then, this brother has some excellent thoughts at the end of the above link: "I have replied to about 730 e-mails requesting the TMS material alone, perhaps it would be a good to ask the Society if this would be available on their site (as they are copyright holders), surely if enough people asked they might consider it?"

Do you suppose that "if enough people asked" the Society to publish the TMS on their web site, surely they "might consider it"? Someone is shaking their head in the second row. Could the brother carrying the microphone hurry to the second row so the one shaking her head can explain their doubtfulness? ;-)

Derrick

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

-- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)

waiting

Hello Derrick,

Do you suppose that "if enough people asked" the Society to publish the TMS on their web site, surely they "might consider it"?

No, I don't suppose so.

Someone is shaking their head in the second row. Could the brother carrying the microphone hurry to the second row so the one shaking her head can explain their doubtfulness? ;-)

Ain't that the truth - no explanation necessary.

waiting

Naeblis

It's copyrighted material. It's illegal. WHy get all huffy about something that ANY company or religion would do? Give me a break.

Seeker

Naeblis,

A company trying to make a profit might do this, but a religion trying to spread its message far and wide not letting its own followers publish this good news because they aren't doing it in the controlled manner allowed?

We know why the Society won't let the Watchtower or Awake go online -- loss of profits for this so-called non-profit society. But the TMS? No, that's just about control. They are afraid that if they allow this, it will encourage the brothers to go to the Web for spiritual food, and they are deathly afraid of that!

A bad motive on the Society's part, no matter how you slice it, and one that is totally different from a for-profit company trying to protect a copyright.

Naeblis

Sorry. Don't buy it. They have just as much right as anyone else to decide when, where, and how their products are used.

GinnyTosken

No TMS!? TMS is one of my favorite posters!

I especially like his "The Man With the Big Nose."
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=7554&site=3

Ginny

Seeker

Of course they have that right. It's just that when they stand on their copyright rights, it contradicts their stated purpose as an organization, and thus they stand as hypocrites.

Naeblis

Not really since the TMS is not meant for public reading is it? If a company employee started sending out internal company memos and putting them on the internet, is the company hypocritical when they ask him to take it down?

Seeker

Indeed, but it would serve as a convenience for Witnesses who don't have their copy handy, such as when on a vacation or business trip and they want to go to a meeting locally. But, as I said, if they allowed it, it would encourage Witnesses to use the Web for spiritual matters beyond their own Web site, and they can't have that.

Since there is nothing secret about the TMS, there is no valid reason for 'hiding' it, and thus the hypocrisy. They have the right, but they look bad in the process.

Naeblis

I understand the underlyiing motive and of course it's wrong, but that does not change the fact that legally they are in the right. There are oftentimes nothiing secret in company memo's either. Most of the notes I get from companymeetings I can't attend are pretty dry and boring. Even competing companies wouldn't care. But you can bet that I would be in some serious trouble if I started posting them on a web page. It is their legal right, and to criticize them or call them hypocritical for a rather prudent and completely sensible legal manouver is a little silly in my opinion. There are so many legitimate things wrong with the WTS that to pick and whine about these miniscule and invented wrongs discredits us all.

No TMS !

Share this