[Ecommerce] Settlement of Mormon Linking Case

[James Love]

Sbject: Settlement of Mormon Linking Case
  Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2000 08:02:13 -0800
  From:  Bob Stock <bstock@mindspring.com>
 Reply-To: cni-copyright@cni.org
       To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright@cni.org>

The parties in Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry have 
reached a settlement subject to court approval.

http://www.utlm.org/underthecoveroflight_news.htm#Permanent Injunction

The details are in the papers, but it would appear that the Mormon Church 
got most of what it wanted (although one could maintain that it had what it 
wanted before it even arrived in court).

The upside for those who felt that the district court's opinion was wrong, 
or that not all of the issues were fully aired and argued, is that the 
settlement vacates the preliminary injunction and its accompanying 
decision.  "'Settlement of the case includes a withdrawal of the court's 
opinion as to the posting of internet addresses (URLs) which may contain 
copyrighted material. That opinion which affected the rights of people that 
use the internet had to be removed either by an appeal or by this 
agreement.'" 
http://www.utlm.org/underthecoveroflight/pressreleasesettlement.htm.

The saddest part from my perspective is that copyright law continues to be 
a place where institutions can hide from public scrutiny and 
criticism.  This had been demonstrated previously in the Scientology cases 
and continues unabated in the Mormon case.

-------------------------------------
Bob Stock <bstock@mindspring.com>
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1206/
-------------------------------------
-- 
James Love  <love@cptech.org>  http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 200036
voice 1.202.387.8030 fax 1.202.234.5176