| Subject: | Mormon Church attempts to gag Internet over handbook (link) |
| Date: | May 15, 2008 |
| Author: | Samantha |
| Mail Address: | rhondadenyer@gmail.com |
|
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Mormon_Church_attempts_to_gag_Internet_over_handbook "The Wikimedia Foundation has received a copyright infringement claim from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church or LDS Church. The infringement claim is in reference to a URL used as a source in a Wikinews article about Mormon Church documents leaked to the website Wikileaks, titled "Copy of handbook for leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obtained by Wikinews". The URL was originally cited as a link in the sources subsection of the article. The Wikimedia Foundation is a donor-supported non-profit organization which runs Wikipedia and Wikinews. This is the first time that the Wikimedia Foundation has received a copyright infringement claim regarding an article published by Wikinews. "
|
| Note: The Handbook of Instructions is the most important document in the Mormon church. It contains current policies and procedures for use by Mormon leaders. Members rarely, if ever. see the book. It is of limited distribution to leaders only and these leaders are all men. Many Mormons are unaware it exists. Mormons can often violate rules in the book because they do not what the rules are currently. The rules and guidelines in Mormonism are ever changing. |
| Subject: | Here is how I got it. (Not smart enough to do a link.) |
| Date: | May 15 21:36 |
| Author: | ProvoJoe |
| Go to wikileaks.org In the search box, just type in "the church of jesus christ...." There will be some PDF files that pop up. Click those then you have it. : ) |
| Subject: | Filtering church policy information for women |
| Date: | May 15 17:25 |
| Author: | Defender of the Faith |
| Filtering church policy information for women One of the problems we have in the LDS church is making sure that the female gender is kept in their proper place as subordinate to the male gender. It's very important that any information about church policy and procedures be meted out to them through the male gender. We cannot tolerate them having firsthand access to current information on policy and procedures. There is a way that we can legally discriminate against their gender. First, we publish all the policies and procedures into a handbook. Then we copyright the handbook. We next specify that the full handbook can only be distributed to certain classes of people that are only of the male gender. And any complaints we get of discrimination can be dismissed by our copyright protection and operation as a church under the freedom of religion. If the handbook is made available where women might access it then we threaten legal action against whoever violated our discrimination policy. In all correspondence and pleadings we always use the term "copyright violation" in place of "violation of church gender discrimination policy that females are to be prohibited from getting direct access to policy/procedure information". And we use our status as a religion and our Intellectual Reserve entity and every other legal warfare means to silence those who dare publish, discuss or display links to information on our church handbook. The PR war on this is more tricky. We must never publicly admit the truth that this is an issue of discriminating against the female gender. This could cause a backlash as not all people in the 21st century are strong supporters of keeping women uninformed. These evil anti-Mormons who think that women should be informed will criticize us. And that would be bad for PR. The courts, legislators, policymakers and the sovereign people will have to decide through their votes, decisions and actions whether good freedom of religion and copyright laws will protect our desire to purposely discriminate against the female gender. Do we have the right to make sure that the females don't get informed on the church's policies/procedures information unless its done so through the filters of males? Now my purpose in sharing this on exmormon.org is to instruct all of you to leave this issue alone. Don't make any complaints about it and just accept it quietly. |
| Subject: | I got to read a copy of the Handbook |
| Date: | May 15 18:37 |
| Author: | Mormon Observer |
| A friend gave it to me. As I went through it, I found
NO PLAN of action of how to really care for, or address the needs of the
worthy single women who were single by divorce or widowhood. There was no
encouragement of activities to put them together with others in the same
demographics. All of the "adult' Single Wards or lack there of, were under
the whim of the SP. If the SP saw a need for the ADULT singles to have any
kind of get together he could santion it. Otherwise the ADULT singles were
to be intermingled into the 'family' wards where their needs were to be
taken care of, but not addressed. No where was there encouragement for ADULT women to be helped in networking to find housing or childcare within their price range. Let alone ways to encourage them to further their job skills so they could support themselves. Heavens we can't have them active in the Wards, they might need church assistance! TSCC reminds me of the sign in the store (LDSInc.?) that read: "We'd like to help you out; which door did you come in?" Especially when it comes to the women! |
| Subject: | Go to wikileaks, search for "Mormon" and it should come up. |
| Date: | May 15 19:07 |
| Author: | Measure |
| I don't think we can post a link to the actual document in the forum here. Also search in Google for Handbook of Instructions. |
| Subject: | No the 1999 version is not the latest . . . (1 F-bomb) |
| Date: | May 15 22:26 |
| Author: | JackMormon'sWife |
| A more recent version (2005 I believe? Sandie knows)
includes new rules for excommunication. For years, joining another church
was specifically *NOT* considered an excommunicatable offense. However, the rules changed midstream. The general church membership was never notified about this new policy. NOW you can be excommunicated for apostacy if you officially join another church, for instance if you are baptized into another faith. I discovered that little tidbit of information when the Bishop found out I'd had all my children baptized into the Catholic church. I grew up Catholic and we returned to the church of my childhood. Our family no longer believed in the Mormon church and we had been inactive and on the "no contact" list for a year. We were waiting for my TBM FIL to pass away before we officially resigned. The Bishop knew this. However, when he found out my kids had all been baptized Catholic in our year-long absence, he threatened to excommunicate me within two weeks if I did not resign. I cannot begin to describe the drama that ensued. Suffice it to say that one late-night Saturday phone call from the Bishop ended up with my psychotic Russian daughter running away in the middle of the night, getting picked up by the police, and transported to a psych unit. Lovely family church we all belonged to, yes folks? MY POINT HERE IS THIS: all of this drama, and fear, and anger in our family life was caused by one thing . . . the freaking Mormons changed the rules in mid-stream and nobody knew about it. But according to his big white book (CHI) the Bishop had a "right" to terrorize and threaten our family. He had the "right" to cause tremendous upheaval in our lives because of the silly, secret rules that only CHURCH LEADERS know!! How in the h@ll is anybody supposed to follow the rules if they don't know what the stinking rules are in the first place! Bishops and SP's can do anything they want if it is in the *white bible*. The rest of us can be blindsided when we break a rule we don't even know exists! The Mormon church is a crazy-making institution. Members are constantly hammered to follow the commandments and guidelines of the church, but the truly sad thing is that the rules and doctrine constantly change. Nobody can keep up. But you can bet we are held accountable when we break those mysterious rules. Fuck the Church Handbook of Instructions. I'm glad it's on the internet so the whole wide world can see just how screwed up the LDS church is. BTW, our entire family resigned September 10, 2007. I was sick of playing by the Mormon "rules." Shannon |
| Subject: | Notice how pg. 158 instructs bishops to violate the law. |
| Date: | May 15 22:57 |
| Author: | can't log in here |
| It says that name removal requests should not be approved if there is "evidence of transgression". Instead, if such evidence exists, discipline should be done before name removal. Even though the US law says that church members can cancel membership at any time, the mormon church instructs their leadership otherwise. No wonder some people are harassed on the way out. |
| Subject: | Irony |
| Date: | May 16 05:53 |
| Author: | One |
| They spend billions of dollars for public attention -
send out hundreds of thousands of missionaries - pray constantly for public
recognition and then complain when "instructions" enter the public domain.
WTF Isn't it their position that God is the source of all intelligence - the Glory of God is intelligence; they do nothing but that which has been revealed and all that stuff. If that is true, then by their own admission the intellectual property of the church is God's and unless and until the LDS church has a copy of a Power of Attorney they don't have a case. |
| Subject: | I think the more meaty parts are at the end |
| Date: | May 16 07:44 |
| Author: | anon Ha Ha |
| Like : “Artificial insemination with semen from anyone but the husband is strongly discouraged. However, this is a personal matter that ultimately must be left to the judgment of the husband and wife. Responsibility for the decision rests solely upon them. Artificial insemination of single sisters is not approved. Single sisters who deliberately refuse to follow the counsel of their Church leaders in this matter are subject to Church discipline.” No sperm for you! |
| Subject: | What lengths will the Mormon Church go to in order to SUPPRESS information? |
| Date: | May 13 21:42 |
| Author: | Orwell O. Well |
| Apparently, they are willing to spend substantial
amounts of tithepayer money to hire fancy pants lawyers to push and stretch
intellectual property law to the maximum limits conceivable and beyond into
the realm of absurdity. And for what???? To suppress information. To keep their deluded, moronic flock of sheep from having access to information. To keep people from knowing the content of the internal policy guidelines by which their organization is operated. For Pete's sake. It's a church, not a national security intelligence bureau! Why all the secrecy?? The members have no privacy, but the Church bureaucracy expects total privacy? The members are supposed to tell representatives of the organization about all manner of personal things, such as masturbation. But the Church doesn't want the ordinary members to know what's in the policy book that governs the activities of the Church's agents? It's an upside-down value system. Mormonism has never been about helping individuals to grow spiritually or saving individual souls. It has always been about the organization itself, first, last and at every point in between. Individuals exist to serve the needs of LDS, Inc. and not the other way around. Linking to a URL is the Internet equivalent of a newspaper or journal article citing the name, publisher and author of a referenced book. Is LDS, Inc. now claiming that copyright law can now be used to prevent journalists and authors from making references to any copyrighted publications from which they obtained information? LDS, Inc. is a sick, sick, sick organization. |
| Subject: | Amen to your Post! |
| Date: | May 14 02:12 |
| Author: | amadeus |
| Orwellian indeed! "1984" could appropriately have been titled "LDS Inc." |
| Subject: | SUPPRESS correct and truthful information that makes the church look bad |
| Date: | May 14 09:22 |
| Author: | They don't want me back |
| After I left my husband I was speaking to a former Bishop who confided in me that they are told never to (advise a woman to leave her husband), I was angry because I was looking for support in my decision and it was with held due to church regulations. Even if a bishop agreed with my conclusion to leave he couldn't tell me. |
| Subject: | I hope wiki continues to stand up to Big Brother Mo..... |
| Date: | May 13 21:49 |
| Author: | anon |
| I always found the name Intellectual Reserve an oxymoron.. |
| Subject: | Re: Wikimedia Foundation receives copyright infringement claim from Mormon Church |
| Date: | May 13 22:24 |
| Author: | Shamdango |
| I can't even tell you at this moment how much I
incredibly hate that I ever belonged to that organization. This just fuels
me even more to help people come to understand what a complete douche
organization that LDS, inc. truly is. With the spirit, of course. |
| Subject: | Mormon Church---- a bunch of cry babies! n/t |
| Subject: | You May not Like LDS, Inc, but Wikimedia is in the wrong in this case... |
| Date: | May 14 08:06 |
| Author: | An Awful Writer |
| The church does have the right to protect its
intellectual property, although the Mormon Church seems to be inconsistent
in what it chooses to protect. If it makes the church look good, they have
no problem with such a leak... What is so devastating in the Church Handbook of Instructions that non-members can't see it? |
| Subject: | It's my understanding that even ordinary members can't see it... |
| Date: | May 14 08:41 |
| Author: | nerdmedic |
| and that probably explains the over-the-top reaction.
I don't think they care that non-members may see it other than they would, of course, be concerned that an "investigator" might see it and be scared off. I think they are far more concerned that the average church member might see it and start holding their leader accountable for living by the rules that have been established, rather than making everything up as they go along. I would have far less problem with TSSC [this so called church] if they did, in fact, live as they claim they live and if they widely communicated their policy and used it to govern their actions. A member or potential member could then make a fully-informed decision as to whether this is an organization to which they should devote their life. This particular action reminds me of the Scientologists and their vigorous attempts to protect their copyrighted "truth". nm |
| Subject: | How Does a Link to Another Site Violate Copyright? nt |
| Subject: | I think TSCC won a case in the late 90's about this. |
| Date: | May 14 11:52 |
| Author: | Measure |
| In fact, if memory serves me correctly, it was a case
about getting some Anti-mo website to take down links to the Handbook of
Instructions. Even as a TBM at the time, I thought the church was wrong to say that a link to copyrighted material was illegal. Perhaps some of the first seeds of my eventual falling away were planted then, as I realized the church's best interests were not always the same as mine. |
| Subject: | Yeah, the Tanners Were Sued |
| Date: | May 14 12:19 |
| Author: | WestBerkeleyFlats |
|
http://www.utlm.org/underthecoveroflight/sandratannersstatement.htm Interestingly, the church made no effort to sue the Salt Lake Tribune for printing the url's. |
| Subject: | Re: I think TSCC won a case in the late 90's about this. |
| Date: | May 14 12:33 |
| Author: | An Awful Writer |
| The Tanners posted 16 pages of the document, which
exceeds "fair use" rules. If the Wikimedia thing was just a link, and not as I initially thought, the entire document, then the church is going after the wrong site. Too bad someone can't pust the entire CHI someplace that does not recognize copyright laws for material posted on the net. |
| Subject: | Wikileaks is Based in Sweden, I Think, and Mirrored Elsewhere |
| Date: | May 14 13:35 |
| Author: | WestBerkeleyFlats |
| I doubt that they care about what LDS Inc. thinks. Their whole purpose is to present revealing information about groups such as the Chinese government and Church of Scientology. |
| Subject: | copyright infringement laws were never meant to |
| Date: | May 14 09:13 |
| Author: | charles, buddhist punk |
| cover or include responsible and dutiful citing of sources and quotes. that mormon cult has everything, and I mean everything, backward. they are always running scared and looking over their dishonest and dictatorial shoulders. shiver me timbers! |
| Subject: | skimming through, favorite quote so far |
| Date: | May 14 12:17 |
| Author: | Frontal Lobotomy |
| Members Whose Close Relatives Belong to Apostate
Groups Bishops and their counselors must take exceptional care when issuing recommends to members whose parents or other close relatives belong to or sympathize with apostate groups. Such members must demonstrate clearly that they repudiate these apostate religious teachings before they may be issued a recommend. Guilt by association, shesh! |
| Subject: | So they saw the Scientologists doing it |
| Date: | May 14 12:50 |
| Author: | Asimov |
| And said to themselves, "Man, we've got to get in on that good press!" |
| Subject: | **Bottom line - they have the law on their side here - |
| Date: | May 14, 2008 note |
| Author: | Susan I/S (exmormon.org bb admininistrator) |
| And we have seen it upheld over and over. If you violate their copyright, they, the Mormon church, can and will come after you. So, do NOT put exmormon.org in that kind of position please. What you do in mail is your own business but keep links or chunks of the text of the Church Handbook of Instructions off the exmormon.org board. Thanks. |
|
Recovery from Mormonism - The Mormon Church www.exmormon.org |