Quotes website receives "Cease & Desist" (page 22)

gumby

Relax Minimus.....their dipfucks (tm)....remember?

Don't you think these slimy sick bastards aren't reading every word from this thread? These chickenshits are losers and losers lose! They will incriminate themselves if they take this on.

Gumby

WTs are regularly left in laundromats and many businesses' waiting rooms for anyone to pick up and read. No one stands there, handing them directly to people. In addition, the magazines are frequently not the current issues. If such kinds of methods for distribution have been long accepted without protest or qualm by the WTS, how is it that WT excerpts on the internet any different than simply finding a series of old WTs left in a laundromat which happen to speak on the same issues? What if a laundromat NEVER threw out any of the years of magazines it had had acquired, and refused to do so when asked--would the WTS also sue the laundromats for not getting rid of old food from the 'slave'?

HEY, I cheer jonathanseagull. Good work! That Guardian writer had a great follow-up on the UN/WTS scandal as well; he is not at all sympathetic toward the hypocrites in Bethel. His response is a good sign!!

bebu

Quotes

Had to pick it up from the post office, signature required. I don't know whether or not they tried to FAX a copy to me, because the fax number they have listed for me is one that I haven't used in about 2 or 3 years. Tsk tsk, perhaps I forgot to send them a "My Fax Number Has Changed" fax.

At any rate, here is the C&D.

Basically, they are claiming:

domain name collision: unauthorized use of domain name "watchtower.ca"

unauthorized reproduction of written AND artwork on the web site, "grossly exceed[ing]" the "fair dealing" provision of the Copyright Act

unauthorized reproduction of the Watchtower books from 1942 to 1959 on the Bookshelf CD (aka the Watchtower BS CD)

unauthorized use of the WT "Corporate Logo"

Here are some scans, be sure to save them locally, just in case.

BTW, I have spoken with legal counsel (haven't yet made a final decision yet, that will be next week). I will refrain from further comments at this time.

czarofmischief

The logo might have to go.

The artwork I think falls under public domain since most if it is very old, if I recall correctly.

Get a lawyer and have them deal with it - they are wonders at this sort of thing.

CZAR

Nosferatu

From what I recall, I believe Quotes looked into the copyright issues of the BS CD and found that the books in question are not only out of print, but they've been put in the public domain since the WTS hasn't renewed the copyright on them.

I agree that the logo will probably have to go, and quite possibly the images and scans.

You may want to talk to Randy at Freeminds about the scans since he also uses them. However, from what I've noticed, Randy only provides the scans of the relevant quotes instead of the entire page.

As far as selling the CD, you may want to re-word that Watchtower Style. How about "For a donation of over $20, we will send you the Watchtower BS CD as a gift for your generousity"

Simon

"expressely designed to capitalize on Watch Tower's goodwill" ?

What goodwill? Most people think of them as an annoying bunch and they really don't have much goodwill !

BTW: They keep mentioning "Watch Tower". Who the hell is that? I'm sure they mean "WatchTower" (no space) which is something different.

tut tut WT, can't even get your name right - you know as little about yourselves as you do about truth and prophesy (ie. sod all)

Simon

"Get a free CD of WT BS whenever you purchase one of our jiffy bags" (which will have the CD in it)

Quotes

LMAO at Simon. ;)

A for the "Watchtower vs. Watch Tower vs. WatchTower" debate:

The correct names (last time I checked) are:

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (two words)
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York (one word)
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada (two words)

Alhtough common, it is technically incorrect to call them "Witch Power Babble & Trick Society of Hellsylvania" ;)

~Quotes, of the "Dot The I and cross the T" class

Leolaia

Hmmm, my interest was piqued by this sentence:

"Although the website gives credit for the information to 'Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania', the unauthorized reproduction of literally hundreds of pages of copyrighted material grossly exceeds the 'fair dealing' provision of Canada's Copyright Act."

How does the Canadian law differ from the American one? The American law, as discussed earlier in this thread, refers not to an absolute number of pages but to proportion in a relative sense. The letter itself states that the Watchtower has been publishing ever since 1879; hundreds of pages is a tiny fraction of the total number of pages published by the Society. For example, if Quotes wanted to say, quote just one medium-sized paragraph from each Watchtower and Golden Age/Awake ever published (and that would involve thousands of issues), the total page count when all the paragraphs are assembled together would surely reach at least 1,000 pages. Yet each citation would not count as infringement since it presents a very small portion of each "work". So I fail to see what is noteworthy about mentioning hundreds of pages (considering the long publishing history of the Society over 125 years), except for scaring the ISP.

AlmostAtheist

The cheesy "under construction" image on the wghow.ca web site is also on at least two other sites:

http://www.tonynuccio.com/europe/photographs/spain/ronda/ronda.htm
http://lln-dev.hprtec.org/mathstar.html

They all were created by "Dale Hall". I'm sure at least Glen contacted Dale before he appropriated the image for use on his own site, dontcha think?

As a side note, I know Linda and Glen through her. I attended their wedding, and Gina and I have met them for dinner at their house at the branch office. I never got to know him that well, but I thought Linda was great. What I know of Glen, I liked. They are your typical dubs, though. Not mean generally, but I'm sure they can get all vicious and nasty when you snub your nose at their God. (Like by quoting him. And stuff.) I think I met Shane briefly at the wedding or reception, but it's been 15+ years.

Dave

Quotes website receives "Cease & Desist"

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