Cruise video ban bid failure!

[Alan]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article697582.ece


Cruise video ban bid

By PETE BELL

Published: Today

DESPERATE attempts by the Church of Scientology to ban the showing of a video of Tom Cruise raving about his faith have come to nothing.

Scientologists tried - and failed - to use copyright law to force video-sharing site YouTube to remove the material.

The video has now appeared on a variety of websites - including the Sun's.

For British-based news websites, use of the video is protected as fair dealing under copyright laws for reporting news and current affairs.

But the video was also available on YouTube today, despite reports that it had been taken down.

Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: "It really is futile to try and remove the Tom Cruise copyright infringement from the internet.

"The Scientologists, by taking action to enforce their copyrights, have made it a news story. The mistake was not to foresee that a news story has special protection in copyright law in reporting news and current events.

"Consequently, every news organisation on the planet has put the controversial video on their website - a real case of making a disaster out of a crisis."

The affair left Cruise, and the Church of Scientology, deeply embarrassed. One US-based website described the footage as a Scientology indoctrination video, and comments on others describe the star as a "freak".

During the video, which lasts about nine minutes, Cruise, speaking as the Mission Impossible theme plays in the background, says that he and fellow Scientologists are "the authorities of the mind", who are able to "rehabilitate criminals" and "bring peace and unite cultures".

He also says: "Being a scientologist, you look at someone, and you know absolutely that you can help them."

The case follows an incident in which the Church of Scientology responded to an investigation by the BBC Panorama programme by filming journalist John Sweeney when he lost his temper and screamed with rage - and putting the footage on YouTube.

[Dulloldfart]

"The Scientologists, by taking action to enforce their copyrights, have made it a news story. The mistake was not to foresee that a news story has special protection in copyright law in reporting news and current events.

"Consequently, every news organisation on the planet has put the controversial video on their website - a real case of making a disaster out of a crisis."



Oh! What a surprise! :)

Paul

[lionheart]

Yesterday's Daily Mirror ran the item and even used the terms SP and KSW in its story!

"And he littered his lecture with abbreviations such as SP (Suppressive Person) and KSW (Keeping Scientology Working)"

Could this be the first time KSW has appeared in newsprint?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/latest/2008/01/16/tom-cruise-s-bizzare-rant-89520-20287230/

[Dulloldfart]

Yesterday's Daily Mirror ran the item and even used the terms SP and KSW in its story!

"And he littered his lecture with abbreviations such as SP (Suppressive Person) and KSW (Keeping Scientology Working)"

Could this be the first time KSW has appeared in newsprint?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/latest/2008/01/16/tom-cruise-s-bizzare-rant-89520-20287230/

Where does this "we are all descended from alien spirits called Thetans" come from? I've seen it in several news stories over the past few months.

Paul

[Alanzo]

Where does this "we are all descended from alien spirits called Thetans" come from? I've seen it in several news stories over the past few months.

Paul

It's true, isn't it?

I don't know about yours, but my thetan was certainly an alien.

[Tanstaafl]

Where does this "descended from alien spirits called Thetans" come from? I've seen it in several news stories over the past few months.

Paul

It's corrupted OTIII. One paper totally misduplicates OTIII, then another just takes the story from the first and before you know it "all Scns believe we are descended from a race of space aliens called Thetans" as if they were from the Planet Theta. :duh:

[Tanstaafl]

It's true, isn't it?

I don't know about yours, but my thetan was certainly an alien.

I don't know - mine stopped speaking to me years ago. :bigcry:

[Pierrot]

"The Scientologists, by taking action to enforce their copyrights, have made it a news story. The mistake was not to foresee that a news story has special protection in copyright law in reporting news and current events.

"Consequently, every news organisation on the planet has put the controversial video on their website - a real case of making a disaster out of a crisis."



Was it mistake?

It's a Hollywood trick to create scandal and controversy and get media coverage before a new movie gets out.

I remember every time the TV made a show against Scientology there were new guys - bright intelligent people - coming into the org buying books taking services saying they found it interesting.

And now Scn gets a planet wide coverage. Div 6 stat will shortly soar.

[Div6]

Where does this "we are all descended from alien spirits called Thetans" come from? I've seen it in several news stories over the past few months.

Paul

It's a mis-dup of the III materials...

I think Southpark used it as a line as well...

[Dulloldfart]

Was it mistake?

It's a Hollywood trick to create scandal and controversy and get media coverage before a new movie gets out.



Yeah, but the "movie" just released is a book that doesn't exactly paint a wonderful picture of DM and life at Int. Plus they don't get a cut of the book profits.

Paul

[Alanzo]

Was it mistake?

It's a Hollywood trick to create scandal and controversy and get media coverage before a new movie gets out.

I remember every time the TV made a show against Scientology there were new guys - bright intelligent people - coming into the org buying books taking services saying they found it interesting.

And now Scn gets a planet wide coverage. Div 6 stat will shortly soar.

Yes, but Katie Holmes is supposed to be promoting her new movie right now - and no one is hearing about it.

Why? Because she is married to Tom Cruise and he is crazy with cult-induced religy-itis and all the attention is on him and his craziness.

Katie's got to be looking at this and saying, "OK, wait a minute. I married Tom Cruise so that my career would go UP, not down."

And maybe seeing other people seeing the video of Tom rants is waking her up.

[Div6]

Was it mistake?

It's a Hollywood trick to create scandal and controversy and get media coverage before a new movie gets out.

I remember every time the TV made a show against Scientology there were new guys - bright intelligent people - coming into the org buying books taking services saying they found it interesting.

And now Scn gets a planet wide coverage. Div 6 stat will shortly soar.

That's true enough....I saw it happen plenty of times.

The thing is, in the US people are terribly disaffected with the current leadership...no credibility, no charisma, just bluff and arrogance. For some, this "sincerity" will strike a chord and pique interest.

There is no such thing as "bad" publicity...

[chipgallo]

I would agree that publicity is good for most operations, but if you are a restaurant (for example) would publicity about your lack of cleanliness be a good thing?

In parts of the video, TC looks brainwashed. He is making statements that are clearly out of touch with reality. He is an example of what corporate Scientology does to a person and, unfortunately for the orgs, speaking a message that was intended for an entirely different target audience than broad public. If there is an uptick in Div 6 stats, I suspect most people are there to gawk at the freakshow.

btw, the book is a good read. I'm at page 50 and so far it has been background on TC's education and how he broke into film. Engaging and only a bit controversial. I guess a control freak would have a problem with some of it and a high control group would (and has) gone after it like ants on sugar.

[Alan]

Was it mistake?

It's a Hollywood trick to create scandal and controversy and get media coverage before a new movie gets out.

I remember every time the TV made a show against Scientology there were new guys - bright intelligent people - coming into the org buying books taking services saying they found it interesting.

And now Scn gets a planet wide coverage. Div 6 stat will shortly soar.



That is utter BS Pierrot!

Tell that to James Baker or Jimmy Swaggart or the Enron people - to name a very few.

The Orgs are empty of students and pcs. There are a lot less staff.

There are almost no new auditors made today!

And that came from nothing as devastating as this.

Alan

[Dulloldfart]

And that came from nothing as devastating as this.

Alan

Wait till some of the horrors get wide publicity. This is just TC being intense about being one of the chosen few. :)

Paul

[Pierrot]

That is utter BS Pierrot!

Tell that to James Baker or Jimmy Swaggart or the Enron people - to name a very few.

The Orgs are empty of students and pcs. There are a lot less staff.

There are almost no new auditors made today!

And that came from nothing as devastating as this.

Alan

Things changed then from those times. I have NO idea about the state of the orgs nowadays. No other than the debriefs on this list and some other sites - and that gives a grim picture of the church, as you say.

On the other hand whenever I meet people and say I did study Scientology, amongst other disciplines, I always get "that's good" and some are even interested (I just have nothing to offer as I'm into music now)

Most people I know don't care at all about private lives of celebrities. So I dont' know what would be "devastating" ... ah, yes, the PR answer of the church with omissions, twisted realities and half truths. Yep - that PR is liable to backfire.