The Watchtower Tries To Silence Us... and Fails!!

On Friday, July 24, 1998, our group's web site was blocked access by Geocities, where this site was formerly located. This was done without any prior notification. Jim Moon, this site's webmaster, received the following communication from Geocities after the fact:

Date: Friday, July 24, 1998 10:40 AM

Subject: WestHollywood/Village7477 - Copyright Complaint

Dear Community Member,

Our guidelines have been carefully crafted to promote the free flowing exchange of ideas about your interests, activities, and hobbies, and at the same time maintain standards consistent with the Internet community and the societies of the world at large. We appreciate your support and participation with GeoCities, however, we have received a complaint concerning the use of some material in your site. Please resolve this matter immediately. Please contact Mr. Richard Moake who represents Watchtower, Inc. in this matter. He may be reached at (914) 878-7000 or by fax at (914) 878-2060.

We encourage you to review the guidelines at: www.geocities.com/members/guidelines/ and our copyright FAQ at: www.geocities.com/members/info/copyright.html

GeoCities Community Response Team

The complaint had been lodged by Moake against our site for alleged "copyright infringement", by our use of the illustration on page 86 from the Watchtower's book "Knowledge That Leads To Everlasting Life". The illustration is supposed to be a depiction of the resurrection according to the caption at the top of the page, but it depicts same-sex couples embracing. The subliminal message is profound, to say the least.

The webmaster of this site immediately replied to Geocities as follows:

Although this site is purely for the purpose of education regarding a dangerous cult and are exercising our legal right to refer to publications and illustrations in accordance with U.S.Code 107, we do not wish to get involved in lengthy legal debate and are willing to remove the offending illustration that the Watchtower Society has filed the complaint about. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the file manager at this time so that the offending item may be removed from our site. Please therefore remove this item from our file & restore our site. If I am able to do this, please advise how. Your cooperation in this matter will be sincerely appreciated.

Kind Regards,

JIM MOON

Probably because this occurred over a weekend, no immediate reply from Geocities was forthcoming. A second follow-up communication was sent to Geocities as follows:

This is my second e-mail to you. Our site is still unavailable. (I imagine you did not reply due to it being the weekend. Please find attached a letter sent to the attention of Mr Moake at the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Your cooperation in restoring our site right away will be appreciated.

JIM MOON - Site Webmaster

The letter which was sent to the Moake's attention at the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society (with copies to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is as follows:

San Francisco Support Group for Gay & Lesbian Former Jehovah's Witnesses
P.O. Box 2582
South San Francisco, CA 94083
July 26, 1998

Mr. Richard Moake
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society
25 Columbia Heights
Brooklyn, NY 11201-2483

Sir:

On Friday, July 24, 1998, we received the following e-mail communication from Geocities, the carrier hosting our web site, entitled "Copyright Complaint":

Editor's note: The letter above received from Geocities was quoted in it's entirety.

Our reply was as follows:

Editor's note: Our reply to Geocities as shown above was also quoted in it's entirety.

To date, our site has yet to be fully restored, sans the "offending" illustration. I understand that this happened over a weekend, which is why we have not yet received a reply from Geocities. I expect to receive a favorable reply from them tomorrow, with full restoration of our site. Restoration of our site will bring a resolution to the immediate matter at hand. However, there are several points which need to be brought to your attention:

(1) Although I am certain that you perceive our site a threat to your religious organization, we have the right under the articles of free speech in the U.S. Constitution to exist, as well as express our views, and to offer the hand of support to anyone who desires to learn our views of and/or leave your denomination, for whatever reason. Your religious liberties do not preclude our freedom to express counter-views, nor does it in any way give your denomination the right to exercise attempted censure towards us or any other group or individual you perceive as "apostate".

(2) Our usage of the illustration from your "Knowledge" book was expressly for the purpose of education and information. It was by no means a malicious attack against your belief system, although one can understand how the "faithful" could perceive it to be so. Nonetheless, usage of this illustration is fully authorized, and our group protected from any action against us by article 107 of the U.S.Code, which reads as follows:

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -
(a) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(b) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(c) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(d) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors

(3) At no time did you or any representative of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society contact the webmaster of our site by post, requesting removal of the "offending" illustration. By lodging a complaint directly with Geocities, effectively having shut our site down temporarily, you have flagrantly displayed favoritism. There are literally hundreds of sites on the internet (many of them hosted by Geocities), which belong to "faithful" Jehovah's Witnesses. An examination of 300 of these sites this weekend revealed a number of sites (see detailed list below) utilizing copyrighted illustrations, logos, text, and music from the Watchtower Society. None of these sites carry a disclaimer stating that the copyrighted material was used with permission. Since these sites are still available for public viewing, it can be reasonably deduced that no action has been taken against these sites whatsoever, and that the only reason our site was singled out was for the express purpose of trying to rid your religion of what you perceive to be as a "thorn in your side". It is not our wish to begin a "witch hunt" to try and have these other sites down. They have every right to exist on the internet, as do we! Your attempted permanent closure of our site has only served to mobilize the recovering Witness community against your unfair and biased tactics. We have received hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls worldwide since Friday evening offering support for our rights and freedoms, which you have attempted to take away from us in your paranoia and homophobia. You have effectively "shot yourselves in the foot", so to speak.

(4) Finally, for the Watchtower Society to utilize the tactic of alleged "copyright infringement" smacks of unmitigated gall, considering that it was your very organization which flagrantly utilized an illustration from a liquor advertisement in Reader's Digest several years ago, removed the wording, and placed the illustration on the cover of your own "Awake!" Magazine. The pot has truly called the kettle black.

We expect you to contact Geocities immediately, retracting your complaint against our site. As previously stated, the illustration in question will no longer appear on the site. It is not, and never was, our wish to involve ourselves in tedious argument. Copies of this letter are being forwarded to Geocities, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. It is expected that some of our correspondents may forward this information to their contacts at the news media. The following pages contain a list of "faithful" JW web sites utilizing copyrighted Watchtower material:

Editor's note: a lengthy list of web sites by active JW's displaying copyrighted Watchtower material followed on the next several pages.

The recovering JW community (gay & straight alike) was mobilized around the world. The following press release was circulated:

NEWS FLASH

San Francisco Site Closed Down by Watchtower

An Internet support group for ex-cult members found themselves erased from cyberexistence this weekend. The group's webmaster, Jim Moon, received a warning from his provider GeoCities that a complaint had been received from the legal department of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. the parent corporation of the controversial Jehovah's Witnesses religious sect. Pleas from the group for some compromise to keep the site running were ignored and the web site summarily closed down, giving their web editor no time even to retrieve the groups's own material from the webspace.

The support group had been the target for some time of hate-mail from current cult members, and explicit threats that they would attempt to close the site down somehow. Particular anger had been raised by the group's inclusion of a picture from the cult's literature that is alleged to depict open affection between same-sex couples.

Group member Moon has stated his determination not to be silenced by the cult's corporation throwing its legal weight around, and a replacement site is planned. Previously, the cult has attempted unsuccessfully to close down Websites and Internet access accounts of individuals in Norway, and has strongly discouraged its own members from use of the Internet.

Ironically, this occurs while the Watchtower corporation is campaigning along with the Church of Scientology and Moonies against the French government for its alleged threats to the cult's right of free speech. This follows other recent controversies regarding Nazi-era revelations and surrounding the European Commission on Human Rights brokered agreement between the Watchtower and the government of Bulgaria, where concessions made regarding the rights of cult members to receive blood transfusions were welcomed by reformers within the sect but later denied by spokesmen for the US headquarters.

Copyleft, TowerWatch, 1998.

After receiving thousands of complaints worldwide, Geocities restored our site within 4 days. During this period, it was decided that we would obtain our own domain, hence our move to this new URL. Our group does not desire any further legal altercation, hence the removal of the illustration from our site. However, those who do not have access to a copy of the Knowledge book can now view the illustration on The Watchtower Observer.

Our group is grateful to Richard Moake for unwittingly publicizing our group, and this web site. It is our hope that through the additional publicity, we will be able to offer the hand of much-needed support to our gay & Lesbian brothers and sisters still trapped behind the walls of the Watchtower.

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