Watch Tower sues Quotes for $100,000 plus plus plus...

by Quotes 354 Replies latest watchtower scandals

  • Midget-Sasquatch
    Midget-Sasquatch

    QUOTES,

    You probably already have a copy of the License Agreement on the WT CD-ROM, but for anyone else out there who doesn't here it is. Looks like the stinkers did a thorough job with whats covered in it. Can relevant parts of the license agreement be legally included in any press releases? To show people the hypocrisy of the WTS. They're supposed to "spread this good news far and wide" or have they confused the term spread with suppress?

    LICENSE AGREEMENT

    This is a legal agreement between you and Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania ("Watch Tower") for the material accompanying this Agreement, which include(s) computer software, electronic documentation, associated media, and printed materials (collectively the "Product"). By installing or otherwise using this Product, you are agreeing to the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to its terms, do not install or otherwise use the Product. Rather, return it to Watch Tower or transfer it to a user who agrees to be bound by the terms of this Agreement.

    1. COPYRIGHT. The Watchtower Library on CD-ROM, including all data and programs contained therein, ("SOFTWARE") is owned by Watch Tower and is protected by United States of America ("U.S.A.") copyright laws, international copyright treaties, and other intellectual property laws and treaties. You may not copy the SOFTWARE or the printed materials ("Printed Materials") except as specifically provided in this Agreement.

    2. GRANT OF LICENSE. Watch Tower grants you the right to use personally the SOFTWARE. You may not network the SOFTWARE or put it on or use it over the Internet. Subject to restrictions set forth in this Agreement, you may copy the program and data from the SOFTWARE to the hard disk of your personally-owned computer(s). Any data you copy shall be for your noncommercial purposes. You may not copy and distribute for commercial purposes portions of the data contained in the Product. You may transfer all the SOFTWARE and all Printed Materials to another party who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses but only if that party accepts all of the terms of this Agreement, and such party's possession or use of the SOFTWARE shall be deemed to be such acceptance. If you make such a transfer, you may not retain any copies of the Printed Materials or SOFTWARE, and the SOFTWARE may not remain installed on your computer(s).

    3. RESTRICTIONS ON USE. You may not do any of the following: transmit all or any portion of the SOFTWARE by electronic means, such as E-mail; post all or any portion of the SOFTWARE on the Internet, a public network, or any type of electronic message board; copy, print, or excerpt from the SOFTWARE to prepare and distribute books, booklets, or any compilation of Watch Tower’s copyrighted material; copy the Printed Materials; duplicate for distribution all or any portion of the SOFTWARE on any kind of compact disc or other duplicating device; print for any distribution an entire Watch Tower magazine, brochure, pamphlet, or book from the SOFTWARE; alter the SOFTWARE; reverse engineer, reverse assemble, reverse compile, disassemble, or decompile the SOFTWARE; sublicense or lease the SOFTWARE; use the SOFTWARE with other access programs; use or call subroutines (.DLL routines) provided by the SOFTWARE to create new or derivative works, including utilities; remove or obscure Watch Tower's copyright and/or trademark notices; use the SOFTWARE or Printed Materials for any commercial purpose.

    4. LIMITED WARRANTY. Watch Tower warrants that the medium upon which the SOFTWARE is provided to you is free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use for a period of 60 days from the date of delivery. Watch Tower warrants that the SOFTWARE will perform substantially in accordance with the Printed Materials.

    DISCLAIMER. EXCEPT FOR THE LIMITED WARRANTY SET FORTH ABOVE, THE SOFTWARE AND THE PRINTED MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED TO YOU IN "AS IS" CONDITION WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. YOU BEAR ALL RISK RELATING TO QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE. YOU ASSUME COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SELECTION AND INSTALLATION OF THE SOFTWARE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME PORTION OF THE STATED EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS LIMITED WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY AMONG JURISDICTIONS. WATCH TOWER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE DATA IS IDENTICAL TO WATCH TOWER'S PUBLICATIONS.

    5. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. Your exclusive remedy for Watch Tower's breach of its limited warranty shall be replacement of any defective medium returned to Watch Tower within the warranty period. In no event will Watch Tower be liable for any lost profits or any damages, including direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or any other type of damages, arising out of this Agreement or the use of the SOFTWARE or the Printed Materials even if Watch Tower has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the foregoing limitations may not apply to you.

    6. TERM AND TERMINATION. This Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by returning the original medium containing the SOFTWARE to Watch Tower and certifying in writing that you have destroyed all copies you may have made on any storage system or other medium. If you breach any of the terms of this Agreement, then Watch Tower may terminate this Agreement and require you to return the original medium containing the SOFTWARE, and you then must certify in writing that you have not retained or transferred any copy of the SOFTWARE.

    7. OTHER PROVISIONS. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed according to the laws of the State of New York, U.S.A., without regard to conflict of laws provisions. Any legal action relating to this Agreement shall be brought in a state or federal court having jurisdiction in the State of New York, U.S.A. Should any provision of this Agreement be held to be void, invalid, unenforceable, or illegal by a court, the validity or enforceability of the other provisions shall not be affected thereby. Failure of Watch Tower to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not constitute or be construed as a waiver of such provision or the right to enforce such provision. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Watch Tower concerning the Product.

  • dilaceratus
    dilaceratus

    31. The Defendant’s main purpose in operating the website is not “fair use”, but rather to try to embarrass the Plaintiffs by quoting selectively from some of the Religious Works in a manner that misleads Internet users as to the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses...
    Chalk one up for the Psychic Abilities of Messers Bereskin & Parr, as they heirarchically probe the mind of Mr [Quotes] in order to determine his "main purpose." Still, it seems they may have a point-- Why did Mr [Quotes] fail to make mention of Plaintiff's innumerable predictions that have been fulfilled?
    Also-- Two suggestions to those who may wish to send out press releases or otherwise notify their local media of this development: a) Unless you know the reporter or editor personally, wait until Monday. Friday afternoon is when you release information you don't want to have published. b) A good few of the press releases that have been sent out from seemingly reputable ex-Witness sources are embarrassing, and give every impression of being the work of yokels. If you do not have the ability to spell correctly and to write coherently, succinctly, and dispassionately, you are providing no help to your cause. If anything, your release will not only be immediately discarded as the work of a crackpot, but it will also prejudice the editor against any competent release that follows.

  • avishai
    avishai

    Well, Is it time for us to start searching our libraries and manually typing this stuff out for quotes? Wwould that help?

  • Axelspeed
    Axelspeed

    You may transfer all the SOFTWARE and all Printed Materials to another party who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses


    Just make sure you have access to the printed material or scans therefrom. There is a difference between software and the printed material therefrom and published bi-monthly paperback journals.

    all Printed Materials to another party who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses but only if that party accepts all of the terms of this Agreement

    ...if this refers to the mags, JWs unknowingly violate this themselves every Saturday morning. Do they ask if the other party accepts the agreement? If referring to printouts, see the above.

    Axelspeed

  • sir82
    sir82

    Wait a second here...these are "Christ' brothers", anointed by divine Holy Spirit.

    They are overseeing all of Jesus' possessions here on the earth. They are the most important humans alive on the planet right now (at least in their own minds).

    Quotes' website is "infringing on their copyright", "causing them embarrassment", causing them "lose reputation and goodwill", etc.

    And the requested penalty for such umbrage against the Most High himself???

    A whopping $100,000!

    When Uzzah broke Jehovah's law, he got zapped by a lightning bolt. When Ananias & Sapphira lied to the apostles, they fell down dead in a heartbeat. 42 children who had the temerity to make fun of Elijah were torn apart by bears.

    And now, the best the modern-day "Prophet of Jehovah" can do is politely ask the Canadian courts to "get that mean ol' Quotes"?!?!?!

    Where is the fire & brimstone? Why isn't Quotes' house a smoldering radioactive crater by now?

    I don't know, if I were the Almighty, and my chosen representatives acted thusly, I might be a little miffed that they thought "working against my holy spirit" had a cash value of $100,000.

    .

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Interesting idea, avishai. It is certainly doable, and would represent compliance with the request to desist posting material from the CD-ROM online (assuming it is from the CD-ROM in the first place ).

    We could divvy up the pages on Quotes' website and for those of us with the printed literature, locate the quoted passages and either scan the text or write it up by hand. If lots of us are on hand to do this, it could certainly be doable. It might even be an opportunity to check to see if they changed anything between the original printed literature and the CD.

    BTW, here is an interesting quote from the literature I found:

    "Zealous Christian ministers are happy to offer their services free of charge to perform this lifesaving work. They reflect the attitude of Jesus, who said: 'You received free, give free.' (Matthew 10:8)" (From the article, "The Blessing of Jehovah -- That is What Makes You Rich," 1 November 2001 Watchtower, p. 30).

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    This is really TOO funny. I've told a normie friend of mine how not only does the Witness religion control what type of outside material a person reads, they also strongly discourage reading any past material provided by the Watchtower society as well. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS TO NORMIES. They can't even get their heads around it. He was laughing for over ten minutes.

    This lawsuit is going to blow up in the Watchtowers face.

    GBL

  • hawkaw
    hawkaw

    Interesting they want to go down this road.

    These things can get real messy.

    Make sure your counsel does a counter suit of some kind.

  • AlmostAtheist
    AlmostAtheist
    You may not do any of the following: transmit all or any portion of the SOFTWARE by electronic means, such as E-mail; post all or any portion of the SOFTWARE on the Internet, a public network, or any type of electronic message board; copy, print, or excerpt from the SOFTWARE to prepare and distribute books, booklets, or any compilation of Watch Tower’s copyrighted material;

    What if it said, "You may not say the word 'boo' ever again"? Would that be legally binding? No. Just because they jammed it into their EULA doesn't mean it's legally binding on you. Copyright laws are what's in question here, not what was written on the shrink wrap of some CD.

    Dave

  • ackack
    ackack


    Indeed. EULAs are not legally tested in anyway.

    This does seem to be more of a copyright question, which I still believe is covered under "fair dealing".

    ackack

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