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LDS Church Sues Tanners

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing Jerald and Sandra Tanner, long-time Evangelical Christian apologists and researchers specializing in Mormonism, for allegedly violating copyright by posting information from a Church handbook intended solely for the use of Church leaders on the Internet.

The Tanners posted information from the Church Handbook of Instructions: Book 1, Stake Presidencies and Bishoprics about the procedures for discipline within the LDS Church, as well as information about the way in which Church leaders are to handle requests from former members for removing their names from the Church's membership rolls. The Tanners claim that their publishing was within the boundaries for fair use (the boundaries for fair use of copyrighted materials are stipulated by 17 USC & sect; 107). However, Intellectual Reserve Incorporated, the owner of the copyright for the Handbook, alleges that their posting of confidential material (the Handbook must be returned when Church Officers leave their positions) violated their copyright.

The Tanners removed the material within hours of receiving the demand from removal by IRI. Despite this acquiescence, IRI has proceeded with the lawsuit in order to force the Tanners to publicly state that they violated IRI's copyright and to force readers to destroy their copies of the information from the Handbook.

The Tanners have agreed to a demanded indefinite temporary restraining order prohibiting them from publishing the material, and have published on their website <http://www.utlm.org> a copy of IRI's letter. IRI, however, is proceeding with the lawsuit, prompting U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell (who is assigned to the case) to ask why a restraining order is still needed, observing, "It seems to me you've won without me doing anything."¹

Despite IRI's lawsuit against the Tanners, the Handbook has been republished in its entirety on the Internet. Brian Barnard, the Tanner's attorney, has noted that the entire Handbook is online.² Barnard believes that the increasing availability of the Handbook on the Internet decreases IRI's ability to argue that the Tanners have reduced the value of the book (Ibid.).

On December 6th the U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injuction in which it claimed that posting a link on a web page to those sites that have posted the Handbook constitutes contributory copyright infringement.³ At the time of this writing, the Salt Lake Tribune's article "With LDS Book on Net, Lawsuit Might be Moot" still contains the URL for an Australian site that contains links to the Handbook.⁴

We encourage readers to also read the instructions from Timothy Oliver, a former Mormon, on How to Write a Letter of Resignation from the LDS Church.

1 Sheila R. McCann, "Critics Can't Distribute LDS Book on Internet," Salt Lake Tribune, October 19, 1999 [Online]. URL http://www.sltrib.com/1999/oct/10191999/utah/39367.htm.
2 Sheila R. McCann, "With LDS Book on Net, Lawsuit Might Be Moot," Salt Lake Tribune, October 30, 1999 [Online]. URL http://www.sltrib.com/1999/oct/10301999/utah/42791.htm.
3 Carl S. Kaplan, "Copyright Decision Threatens Freedom to Link," New York Times, December 10, 1999, p. B10.
4 McCann [Online]. URL http://www.sltrib.com/1999/oct/10301999/utah/42791.htm. Please note that this article may be altered or removed from the Tribune's web site without notice.