You could always make them available by other means.....
for instance.... burning the images into a CD and mailing them out anonymously.... no charge
or something like that...
Love, Scully
NEED HELP! WTS accusing Dirtclod.com of copyright infringement
by Jourles 72 Replies latest jw friends
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Jourles
OK, I have password protected the gallery for now and added a url redirect to this current page:
A zipped file of the BOE letters can be found by IM requests. No newbie requests please for obvious reasons.
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waiting
Shaun's forum has scanned images of WT letters - many sites do.
Sometimes they block out a part of the letter (personal mailing addresses, etc.)
Perhaps that's the key? Block out the logo & personal info on letter. Perhaps even blocking out non-essential sentences.
At the beginning of your site, you could state why you had to do this. Can you put up the notification from your ISP to show it's legit.....as they would be the ones naming the WTBTS.
Don't know how this would do?
waiting
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Uzzah
There is little the Society hates more (other than us) than bad publicity. This is something you can use to your advantage.
The WT Society Legal Dept are bullies. This is their whole approach to make threats of lawsuits and to gain cooperation from even the media. Why do you think the media is now so eager to report the abuse allegation stories? Because the Society for decades has threatened them and they finally have factual stuff they can report without fear of censure and also the media is now a stronger entity than ever before.
It is very rare for Bethel to actually commence an action. They far prefer to threaten people with law suits but are really at a loss if the threats do not work. The Society's expertise is playing the role of Defendant not the moving party.
Due to your desire of anonymity, it might be tough to get the media involved unless you know os a spokepserson you could use representing the site or transfer it to someone else who doesn't mind being in the public eye. A media campaign about how the Society is now trying to COVER UP letters dealing with abuse that have been made public on the Internet combined with how they are going after abuse victims for costs in law suits where they have been found negligent... I could see a few papers picking up that story.
One other question, I have just re-read your initial post. I would suggest that you verify the origin of the letter of coplaint. It may very well be from a militant JW and not the Society itself. If the person registering hte complaint is not an official agent of the WTBS then there is no need for the ISP to become overly concerned. It is one person just trying to shut you down. (It might also buy you more time).
I hope this helps. If you are going to go the media route I suggest you contact Hawkaw for some ideas and suggestions and media contacts at his disposal
Regardless of your decision on this, thank you for hosting these as long as you have. Your actions have innoculated a lot of people against the mind-numbing serum of the JWs
Uzzah
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Elsewhere
This might be a good opportunity to get the attention of the media... if the WTS in telling you to remove their materials, then obviously the materials you are showing are accurate. I guess this means that JWs cannot accuse you of making up fake documents like they usually claim.
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Jourles
If it were not for my needing to stay anonymous, I would take this head on and not back down. Uzzah may be on to something too....I wonder if a r&f jw sent an email to them? But I imagine an email came from their legal department. I would hope that my ISP could discern between the two.
I did send an email to Stephen Bates regarding all of this. Haven't heard back from him yet. I figured he would like to know about this censoring taking place.
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VM44
The Watchtower considers the copyright law as the 11the Commandment!
Scully's idea has merit, put the letters on a CD and distribute them (for free).
Censoring information by claiming copyright on a logo is ridiculous!
Now I know why the Watchtower has a logo! Always thought it strange that they would have a symbollic image representing the Corporation. Yes, Image of the Watchtower right next to the Image of the Beast!
There is nothing "Spritual" about the WT, it is a legalistic, power hungry, institionalized organization!
They don't care about their own doctrines, in fact, if you as them a question they can't answer they say "Wait on Jehovah"
Why don't they WAIT ON JEHOVAH regarding this matter?
--VM44
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SixofNine
Jourles, I think you are at that weird place in copywrite law that doesn't make alot of sense at first blush.
Quotes, for example, can do what he does because while he does do exact quotes, each quote is lifted out of a larger set of words, and, contextually, his site focuses only on specific, negative quotes... therefore his site is obviously criticism and instructional.
Your problem Jourles, is that you are reproducing the entire work, w/o any commentary. You would actually be on much firmer legal ground if you offered liberal commentary thru-out each work you publish, ie. if you highlighted and italicized and occasionally put your own thoughts in brackets. Then you could more readily make the claim that you are using copywrited WT material for criticism purposes.
BTW, the logo really has nothing to do with the copywrite. The words are copywrited, there is no way around that. The issue is whether or not your use of the WT's words is "fair use". I think it's very likely a judge would say that it is.
As someone else pointed out, what damages could they possibly claim from your use of their words, financially? Really none. But that doesn't mean they can't spend alot of your money in fighting you.
One solution might be to have several people host various WT letters, each proclaiming that the one or two letters they host are provided to the public for educational purposes. Then dirtclod could just link to each different host.
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rem
Ok, how about this:
Modify the documents to blur out everything but the offending parts of the document. This way people can see that the document is genuine, but you are only sharing the 'fair use' bits. This is what they do on TV news programs when they highlight parts of internal memos of companies.
Then, put the unmodified BOE letters out on Kazzaa. State on the website that you've heard rumours that they are available via peer to peer file sharing.
rem
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Jourles
Rem,
Modify the documents to blur out everything but the offending parts of the document.
I have already started doing just that. I don't want to give the WTS any reason(trademark, copyright vs. fair use) to come after me again to take these down. I figure with the logo gone, some of the wording blurred, and the rest viewable, they cannot do much to me in the realm of fair use. It will probably take me another week or so to redo all of the letters, but that should be my 'out.'