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Those, my friends, are the terms of use listed on a webpage of some religion. And there is a big problem with that religion. I don’t know what religion it is because I cannot legally read the text I’ve pasted without plausibly violating their copyright.
“Copyright?” you say.
A religion predicated on copyright. There could be nothing more antithetical to the idea of religion than one that requires an army of lawyers to keep itself in operation. And there is nothing more disgusting to anyone that has a hope of copyright and intellectual property reform than the tactics undertaken by this religion.
Go ahead, friends, ask them politely for a free copy of their holy scripture. See what they say! “What would you like to change about your life?” (Gee, I hope that isn’t copyright too…) Say you’re doing a school report on major world religions? You get a free Bible, free Koran, free Torah, free pocket constitution… it has long been a tradition of any institution that seeks to promote ideas and the actions behind ideas to distribute freely their literature.
But not this religion. They are in the business of making money hand over fist. They are in the business of religion and if that’s not sick it’s certainly demented. But should it be a surprise? That they received tax-exempt status (501(c)) around 1993 after years of trying. So now they have their cake and eat it too. Must be nice, even if it’s mean.
The thing is, we owe it to ourselves to shut them down. They should have to pay taxes or should stop making money. The whole concept of a non-profit organization is that it doesn’t make money. They can have revenue, but the main goal is to keep operating expenses low and maintain a stable treasury. They do no such thing.
And it’s especially sick that they seem to believe I am not entitled to call myself one of them and start my own unaffiliated denomination. If they are a religion they surely can’t be entitled trademark protection and to exclude all they see fit, or can they?
Anyway, just thought I’d rant a bit about the bogeymen in business suits wielding their e-meters as they try to find the door to OTIX.
Adam
(But let’s suppose for an instant it said that I wasn’t authorized to download and retransmit that very copyright notice. I wouldn’t know anything about that and would kindly ask you to check that you’re in the right universe.)