US District Court Judge Tena Campbell has issued a preliminary injunction to two critics of the Mormon Church who posted web addresses to material the infringed the church’s copyright. The judge said that by posting the web addresses, the critics, Sandra and Jerald Tanner, may have engaged in contributory copyright infringement. Web advocates are appalled by the decision’s potential to harm the way the web works.
In July, the Tanners posted excerpts from the Church Handbook of Instructions, a limited-distribution book aimed at lay clergy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church obtained a restraining order from Judge Campbell, and the Tanners removed the excerpts. But in November, the Tanners pointed viewers to sites where others had posted illegal copies of the handbook.
Now Judge Campbell has prohibited the Tanners from posting the contents of the book or addresses to web sites that defendants knew, or had reason to know, contain the material alleged to infringe plaintiff’s copyright. The judge’s reasoning is that by posting the web addresses, the Tanners encouraged their visitors to infringe the church’s copyright. Sandra Tanner said she and her husband intent to appeal the injunction.
The decision is likely to please the Church of Scientology, which has become notorious in internet circles for its aggressive efforts to enforce the copyright on its secret documents. It’s even possible that the granting of the injunction could prevent web sites from linking to copyrighted material, or even from linking at all. If the decision holds up, then linking is definitely dead, copyright lawyer Jeffrey Kuester told the New York Times. If you can’t post an address without running into copyright infringement, how can you link?
