Another socialist blog

When in doubt, attempt to shut up your critics? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to be having mixed success with this strategy. Someone leaked a copy of the church’s Church Handbook of Instructions, a two-volume book of policies and is a guide for leaders of the Mormon Church. You wouldn’t think church policies would be secret, let alone copyrighted, but church lawyers have been busy silencing anyone who tries to bring the handbook into the light of day. They’ve managed, through abuse of copyright law, to force several people and organizations to take down the leaked—and presumably embarrassing— material, including Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Scribd and Wikimedia Foundation. Wikileaks, a whistleblower website which publishes anonymous submissions of sensitive documents while preserving the anonymity of its contributors, has refused to take the handbook down. Wikileaks describes the material as significant because “…the book is strictly confidential among the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka LDS in short form) bishops and stake presidents and it reveals the procedure of handling confidential matters related to tithing payment, excommunication, baptism and doctrine teaching (indoctrination).”

Good for Wikileaks. This document is a perfect example of the twisting of intellectual property law, to cover material that isn’t valuable but is something the rich and powerful would like to hide. It’s madness to give new power to people who already have too much. Unless, of course, you’re a legislator who’s for sale to Hollywood.