Posts by John Davis

27

2018 Annual Meeting

by EyesOpenHeartBroken in

does anybody have any word on the 2018 annual meeting?

i assume something new will be rolled out, since they are having all the congregations do special weekend streaming.. my guess is that there will be some major "new light" concerning the memorial, partaking, anointed, etc.

i would guess that they will say all baptized believers should partake.

John Davis

They are tying everyone in because it is a combination of the annual meeting and the dedication of Warwick and the expansion and Wallkill.

8

Malloy v Watchtower

by John Davis in

a woman asked the federal court in michigan for a restraining order as well as she has sued watchtower.

the restraining order was denied.

the following is from the court's decision not to grant the restraining order.

John Davis

A woman asked the Federal Court in Michigan for a restraining order as well as she has sued Watchtower. The restraining order was denied. The following is from the court's decision not to grant the restraining order.

Plaintiff appears to assert that she is entitled to a total of several billion dollars (“$4,000,000,000” and “2.4000,000”) for “kidnapping in infancy and as a young adult, separated from parent, family and country for 53 yrs.[,] unlawfully took my children and had adopted, arranged (5) sexual aggravated offenses including statutory, mutilated and dismembered, denied education for self and children, denied legitimate employment for 38 yrs, orchestrated (5) car accidents to injure-causing multiple injuries, defamation of character, physical and mental torture for 16 yrs, physical abuse for 49 yrs, monopolized and defrauded of revenue, secretively implanted the Nkultra Military Device, forged identity, inundated compulsive conceptions, attempts of murder, inventions of criminal and[d] psychological incidents, 30 yrs. of destruction of property, innumerable irreversible damages and 53 yrs in a conspiracy that denies liberty and justice and coerces slavery.” [Dkt. No. 11] Prior to the Motion, Plaintiff did not seem to seek injunctive relief for the alleged conduct of Defendant.

23

Canada: class action lawsuit filed against the Watchtower about the pedophilia issue

by yalbmert99 in

canada, province of quebec : class action lawsuit filed against the watchtower about the pedophilia issue.

it is now official.

see the articles in french of today:.

John Davis

It will require for the courts to approve the collective lawsuit. So it is only on the first step.

1

UK: Revised UK child sexual 'consent' rules provoke backlash

by darkspilver in

there was some discussion here the other week regarding the updated letter:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5072996442046464/september-1-2017-boe-re-protecting-minors-from-abuse.

including paragraph 14 - the issue appearing (?

John Davis

It really highlights how complex the situation of child sexual abuse is and how even government agencies have to take certain aspects into account before they make a decision. In some jurisdictions, if the person who is the perpetrator exerts authority over the victim the penalties can be more severe, some jurisdictions it doesn't matter. Some jurisdictions give a couple of years of leeway for those approaching the age of consent so like if the age of consent is 16, so a 16-year-old might be able to have sex with a 13-year-old and it not is prosecuted or an 18 and a 16-year-olds. That is of course unless the parents pressure the prosecutors to file charges. So it is not always this cut and dry thing that so many people think it is. there is a lot of circumstances that must come into play.

161

Help! Mike & Kim videos all being deleted by Youtube

by mrmagic in

due to watchtower flagging the mike & kim videos on youtube for copyright, youtube is giving them 6 days before they are shutting down their entire youtube channel.

can you help with a mass downloading program and then reuploading them on a mirror ?

would hate to lose all those good videos!

John Davis

Stanford University has a good explanation on fair use. Again this is one of the most complex areas of law that is out there, but it is a good start.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/

161

Help! Mike & Kim videos all being deleted by Youtube

by mrmagic in

due to watchtower flagging the mike & kim videos on youtube for copyright, youtube is giving them 6 days before they are shutting down their entire youtube channel.

can you help with a mass downloading program and then reuploading them on a mirror ?

would hate to lose all those good videos!

John Davis

It is not always the amount of content but it is also how recognizable the content is. you might not have a problem showing 4 minutes of Star Wars desert and forest scenes and have no problem, but maybe 10 seconds of Darth Vador may nab you for a copyright violation. The difference is that the desert and forest scenes are not as recognizable as Darth Vador is.

161

Help! Mike & Kim videos all being deleted by Youtube

by mrmagic in

due to watchtower flagging the mike & kim videos on youtube for copyright, youtube is giving them 6 days before they are shutting down their entire youtube channel.

can you help with a mass downloading program and then reuploading them on a mirror ?

would hate to lose all those good videos!

John Davis

Fair use of copyrighted material is an extremely complex situation and is often dependent on how a particular court will view it as. It is more than just giving credit to someone else for their own copyrighted material, it is that the material cannot be distributed without the permission of the copyright owner. If you rebroadcast an NFL game, no one is thinking that you have created the content but that doesn't mean that you're not violating copyright material.

Generally, to not infringe on someone else's copyright you cannot use large amounts of the original material or you have to change it in some significant way. Some examples you can see on the internet is the videos Everything Wrong With..., where they will show clips of a movie and then mock it. They generally don't play the audio along with the video, this does two things it allows them to mock the movie but it also allows them to change the original content to help them get by copyright laws. That doesn't always work and many movie studios have gotten YouTube to take down their copyrighted material. They also will take a 90-minute movie and only show a fraction of the content down to like 15 minutes or less, again not showing the whole content but only a relatively small portion.

If you want to say a letter came out and it discusses xyz and then speaks about it that is certainly freedom of speech, but you cannot read the whole letter out and then say, well I interjected criticism, therefore, it is fair use. You could do that to any copyrighted work and then there would be no protection for anyone.

Same thing goes to playing an entire convention recording and saying because I stop it regularly to interject my comments, therefore, it is fair use under the criticism doctrine may or may not hold water. You have to be prepared to defend your reasons behind it.

And then there are some Ex-JW activists that don't just do it with Watchtower copyrighted material but also to the commercial copyrighted material. Six Screens uses music that is copyrighted by artists and even by NBC. So it may not just be watchtower that sends these out against EX JWs but it could be commercial ventures that own copyrighted material otherwise.

Again copyright law is extremely complex that is why there aren't a lot of IP attorney's out there, and the ones that are out there will tell you that it is rarely ever cut and dry.

As a side note, Cedars has been going on with his twitter account about how he isn't getting paid for some of his videos. When people do stuff like that, they become even more susceptible to copyright violation notices because it is proof that you are making money off of it and not just doing it for nonmonetary reasons.

11

Are JWs the most corporate religion?

by cookiemaster in

i find it pretty shocking how corporate the jw religion is.

i never saw it this way when i was in but now that i look at it from a different perspective, it seems quite clear.

much of the terminology used by jws is corporate inspired.

John Davis

JWLeaks yes 1 corporation for every 90 publishers. That would be a corporation for the kingdom hall. A corporation has to hold the title of the real property.

24

The Governing Body's Public Denial Of Being Easy On Childmolesters Will Hurt Them Big Time In Court

by Brokeback Watchtower in

lett made a complete public denial of any wrong doing on the part of those directing watchtower policies i think his statement as well as splane's statements of denial to the portugal indoctrinated members certainly shows the evil information he is willing to spill out to keep these matters of serious concern away from their believing public there in portugal.. i feel these videos if they can be used in court cases of child molestation will swing the jury toward megabuck$$$ based on the denial expressed to make these denying ass holes wake up and shrivel up their real estate assets quicker.

these videos make it very plane that these guys are evil and deserve to be given the maximum fine that the jury can award to the victims.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2gqnwvvwtk.

John Davis

I think that any firm that uses the Watchtower over this should dot all their I's and cross all their T's. I wouldn't say that all of them do but certainly, most do. I think a pragmatic law firm will only take on the cases that they think is the most likely to have success, but does that mean that they think that all of the cases they take on will go to trial and a verdict? I don't think so. I think that some of those cases lawyers take on hoping to get a settlement and get out along with their cut. Remember a settlement requires both parties to accept the terms of the agreement. An attorney is obligated to present every offer to their client, but it is also up to the attorney of the plaintiff to make a recommendation. I do think that in a number of cases the attorney knew that they may have won at the trial court because they could win the sympathy, and rightly they should receive that sympathy, of the jury but I think they knew that they would lose on appeal when the Court solely looks at the letter of the law.

And actually, Watchtower has turned over the subpoena list of documents they did so in the Lopez case following the appeal and the issuance of the protective order by the superior court. The issue in the Padron case is how much can be redacted. In the Lopez case, the court found that all third party information can and should be redacted and in the Padron case that court went the opposite direction. So the appeal is mostly to resolve this question, at least in my opinion, of how to interpret the Appeals Court Decision in the Lopez case. In the Appeal's court decision it was ruled that Zalkin can go on a fishing expedition, but that they are not entitled to 3rd party information. So the question is what is third party information, is it the accused information, witnesses information or the victim's information, is it just one of those categories or is it a combination or an all of them.

I think that even in the ARC case Watchtower handed over their database, so it does indicate that Watchtower is willing to turn it over at least in certain circumstances.

Again I look at this from a pragmatic stance. Is what Watchtower has done is dispicable? I absolutely think so. But what I think and what the law says is two different things. I think that everyone thought that the number of cases following the initial Conti case was going to explode to hundreds if not thousands, but it hasn't, in reality, it has been dozens. And a lot of those have been issued with summary judgments in favor of Watchtower. I know that for a lot of people they were hoping that this would be causing the end of the Watchtower but I really doubt that. I

I know that for a lot of people they were hoping that this would be causing the end of the Watchtower but I really doubt that. I really doubt that the use of the courts is really going to break Watchtower or to stop shunning or a policy on Blood Transfusions. Again I am looking at this from a pragmatic stand point. Either people are going to leave the religion or they aren't, the goverment ain't going to shut them down or tell them what to do.

24

The Governing Body's Public Denial Of Being Easy On Childmolesters Will Hurt Them Big Time In Court

by Brokeback Watchtower in

lett made a complete public denial of any wrong doing on the part of those directing watchtower policies i think his statement as well as splane's statements of denial to the portugal indoctrinated members certainly shows the evil information he is willing to spill out to keep these matters of serious concern away from their believing public there in portugal.. i feel these videos if they can be used in court cases of child molestation will swing the jury toward megabuck$$$ based on the denial expressed to make these denying ass holes wake up and shrivel up their real estate assets quicker.

these videos make it very plane that these guys are evil and deserve to be given the maximum fine that the jury can award to the victims.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2gqnwvvwtk.

John Davis

As most courts have found that Watchtower doesn't have a fiduciary responsibility i think it is mute point.

Do they have a moral obligation certainly but legal and moral isn't the same thing.