Quotes - Press Release (page 2)

Crumpet

I thought inbya thread's passage very good also.

AuldSoul

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES QUASH FREE SPEECH

Warning!

If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, skip this article. An odd way to begin an article? Maybe. But if you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, reading this sentence could overstep Church policy.

The Church prides itself on being a champion of free speech. On December 9th Peter Mosier of Toronto Canada settled a $100,000 lawsuit brought against him by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada. They claimed he violated copyright laws by quoting their words on his Web site and that, "as a result of his activities, the Plaintiffs have suffered and will continue to suffer damages, including but not limited to loss of reputation and goodwill."

These same words were publicized in years past by an active public distribution campaign, but they are now embarrassing to the company that published and encouraged distribution of them.

Why would they not want to have their words from years and decades past published at no cost to them? Because time has proven their words false. So they seek to silence anyone who communicates the truth about what they used to teach, and they have money to fight with. In 1991, Newsday.com ranked the Watchtower Society as one of New York’s Top 100 companies grossing almost one billion dollars in the U.S. alone. How can any citizen stand against one of New York’s Top 100 companies?

Per terms of the settlement, Mr. Mosier gave his Web domain "watchtower.ca" to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada and destroyed all files pertaining to the site. Will this juggernaut corporation be able to silence all criticism simply by threatening lawsuit? Time will tell.

Kristofer

Hey Scully, Sorry about that. I was just trying to put it into relevant and related topics so everyone would see it. I apologize if broke any rules.

cabasilas

This is something I quickly put together. Feel free to adjust it in any way:

Press Release: Jehovah's Witnesses Shut Down "Embarrassing" Website

December 23, 2005 Toronto, Canada The Watchtower Society (parent organization for Jehovah's Witnesses) this week has shut down the whistle-blowing website http://quotes.watchtower.ca as part of the settlement of a lawsuit against its previous owner, Mr. Peter Mosier over supposed copyright infringement. The "Quotes" site contained quotes from Watchtower Society publications which they said were posted to "try to embarrass" them. [Background details and commentary on the lawsuit and an earlier radio interview with Mr. Mosier can be read at the following links: http://www.theopenpress.com /index.php?a=press&id=4153 http://romancatholicblog .typepad.com/roman_catholic _blog/2005/10/jehovahs_witnes .html http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks /8.30/relrpt/stories/s1501367 .htm] As part of the settlement to the lawsuit Mr. Mosier turned over all control of the website to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. The site apparently was taken down by them on December 22nd. Although there was no admission of wrongdoing by Mr. Mosier, he felt the legal costs were such he needed to accept the settlement. Mr. Mosier explained his understanding of the settlement on an ex-Jehovah's Witness discussion board:

http://www.jehovahs-witness .com/11/104279/1.ashx The actual legal settlement can be read here: http://peter.mosier.ca/2005 _Watchtower_Mosier_Settlement _EXECUTED.pdf A mirror of the old "Quotes" site on the Internet Archive can still be seen here: http://web.archive.org/web /20041012012555/quotes.watchtow er.ca/ In his comment on the ex-Jehovah's Witness discussion board, Mr. Mosier says: "I am truly sorry that I have been forced to remove this resource due to [the] Watch Tower's persecution....I have long felt that the most damaging, most effective tool against [the] Watch Tower (or any other High Control Group) is to carefully and rationally study the group's words and works. [The Watchtower Society] thrives on information control, including controlling access to their own information -- not too much, not too soon. Clearly my site struck a nerve with the old men that control [the Watchtower Society.] Their Statement of Claim plainly stated that they feel that a collection of their own words can only have one purpose: to embarrass them. (BTW, I've never figured how they felt that, even if such a ridiculous claim were true, how it is relevant to a case of alleged copyright infringement! I didn't see any "embarrassment" clauses in the Copyright laws.) Perhaps one day another young Jedi Paduan, or old Jedi Master, will pick up the torch.

The funny thing about squishing Cockroaches is they seem to be able to reproduce faster than you can squish them. You don't have to worry about the one you just squished, you have to worry about the 10,000 offspring hatching under the cupboard." The media office for the Watchtower Society can be contacted at: (718) 560-5600 [End of Press Release]