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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Judge refuses to dismiss suit against Tanners
Deseret News 29Jan00 N1
By Jim Rayburn: Deseret News staff writer
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell refused to
dismiss the LDS Church's copyright lawsuit against critics Jerald &
Sandra Tanner on Friday. In ruling for the LDS Church, Judge Campbell
said that the LDS Church's current "Church Handbook of Instructions" is
a "derivative" work because it hasn't changed substantially from the
1989 version.
The Tanners had claimed that the information they had put on the web was
from the 1989 version, which they claim the LDS Church has never
registered with the copyright office, and which the LDS Church never
claimed was copyrighted in their lawsuit. Registration of a copyright is
generally not necessary, but it is required before some court actions.
The ruling keeps in place an injunction that prohibits the Tanners from
posting the LDS Church's material to their website and from directing
visitors to other locations on the Internet where the material is
available. The injunction is under appeal before the 10th Circuit Court
of Appeals in Denver.
The injunction against directing traffic to other sites that have the
material is of particular interest to Internet activists, who see Judge
Campbell's injunction as threatening the free-linking customs on-line.
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