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  1. #1
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    Default Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    My question is, can a court of law find against a defendant in a copyright infringement case without violating the 1st Amendment, if the situation is as follows:

    The material in question is audio recordings of preachings in mp3 format that was once posted on the internet by the original owner and creator for public listening with no download restrictions

    The material in question is used only for sharing and is never sold or traded

    The material in question is used as part of the daily religious practice of the adherants

    The material in question is not available to the adherants by any other means

    The original owner and creator of the material in question is deceased, and their successor has made the material inaccessable, contrary to the expressed wishes of the original owner and creator of the material


    The question therefore is, if a court of law rules that the adherants of the religious group have no legal right to share amongst each other the material in question, would that ruling constitute prohibiting the free exercise of a religion?

  2. #2
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    Question Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    Is this an actual situation? Which participant are you?
    or is this homework?

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    This is a real situation, and I am the defendant. I've written a paper which I believe may prove my point, and have sent it to a few legal professionals for evaluation, but have not yet been answered. I'm not allowed to post an attachment here, but perhaps I could post the text here as a reply. But it is 2.5 pages long. Should I do that?

    Thank you

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    You are asking if you have a First Amendment right to ignore copyright law, and to reproduce and distribute religious works or speeches against the wishes of the copyright holder? No, you do not.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    The material in question is audio recordings of preachings in mp3 format that was once posted on the internet by the original owner and creator for public listening with no download restrictions
    but what about other restrictions?

    The material in question is used only for sharing and is never sold or traded
    as in making multiple copies and distributing them?

    s

    The original owner and creator of the material in question is deceased, and their successor has made the material inaccessable, contrary to the expressed wishes of the original owner and creator of the material
    how were those wishes expressed?


    The question therefore is, if a court of law rules that the adherants of the religious group have no legal right to share amongst each other the material in question, would that ruling constitute prohibiting the free exercise of a religion?
    absolutely not. How would enforcing a persons copyrights, even in the most liberal application, be considered to be prohibiting your freedom of religion?

    how and when did you obtain a copy of the material? What restrictions were placed on the use or distribution of the material at that time?

    How are you "sharing"

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    Obviously there is some individual or corporation that owns the copyright to the recordings.

    If they are suing it must be because they want to make money off of the recordings or they want to surpress their distribution for religious or other reasons.

    One big thing. Are the recordings filed with the copyright office? This makes a big difference on the damages, statutory as opposed to actual. If not filed with the USPTO then their damages are limited to what they can prove, which isn't going to be much. If you are the defendant you need to do discovery into these and other issues.

    About the only defense you have under the FAIR USE doctrine. Your position is helped if you are not making money off the recordings. I would think you could make a good fair use argument if these recordings are underpinnings or otherwise important to your religion. I would also argued that their previous posting and the intent of the original owner is that they were treated as and intended to be public domain.

    Religious writings have always been produced and intended for the widest possible dissemination and normally nobody has any problem with anyone helping in that dissemination so long as the original message is not changed.

    You need to research anything there is on copyrights of religious writings and cases where any such writings were treated as public domain and then some person/entity that inherited them changed their minds and wanted to make money off of them or wanted to destroy the original message. There has to be some case law on a federal or state level that would bear on this.

    Although a copyright notice is not required today, the lack of any such notice could be argued to show the intent of the original source of the recordings and be used as part of an argument of fair use. The lack of notice itself does not work to make them public domain, but one could use it in a fair use argument.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    Perhaps you'll notice, I wasn't asking about MY rights, I was asking about the rights of the court, specifically a U.S. District Court.

    Does the court have the right to prohibit followers of a religion from sharing recordings which have been shelved by the current owner, against the wishes of the creator of the recordings as expressed verbally on the recordings themselves, when the followers are not attempting to gain monetary revenue from the sharing of the recordings but only wish to exercise their chosen religion?

    The paper I wrote explains that the recordings are a crucial part of the exercise of the chosen religion.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    [=TeacherOne;342727]Perhaps you'll notice, I wasn't asking about MY rights, I was asking about the rights of the court, specifically a U.S. District Court
    . the courts don't have rights. At least rights as you were speaking of (consitutional rights)

    Does the court have the right to prohibit followers of a religion from sharing recordings which have been shelved by the current owner, against the wishes of the creator of the recordings as expressed verbally on the recordings themselves, when the followers are not attempting to gain monetary revenue from the sharing of the recordings but only wish to exercise their chosen religion?
    the court has the duty to enforce the laws.

    The paper I wrote explains that the recordings are a crucial part of the exercise of the chosen religion.
    then the owner of the copyrights is the one infringing on your rights, not the government. This does not give you any action against the copyright holder though.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Copyright and Freedom of Religion

    I have to second JK here.

    What "rights" do you think the court has? You think they will take away the copyright and give it to you? Not going to happen. You think they are going to give you a free pass? Not going to happen. Do you think the law on copyright is somehow different because the materials are religious? Nope.

    Do you think your beliefs trump federal copyright law? You can scream and shout, jump up and down all you want. It will not make any difference.

    I have already explained to you in detail that you could make an argument for fair use. Either you are being sued in US District Court or you are not. If not, this is all academic and a big waste of everyone's time. If you are being sued, hire an experienced intellectual property attorney or suffer the consequences.

    At least learn to do your own work, research federal copyright case law and see what you can come up with to at least make a plausible argument.

    I do not recall you paying me $375 an hour to do your work for you.

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