Essay The Church of Scientology: Copyright vs. Free Speech

Hustler Magazine, INC. The court found the defendant’s use of the copyrighted works in their magazine was fair. Hustler Magazine INC did not exploit the value of Haberman’s works in order to sell copies of its magazine. The court also found Hustler established evidence that it made fair use of the copyrighted work because it did not materially impair the marketability or value of the work. This issue, presented in 17 USC § 107, is undoubtedly the single most important element of fair use. My client’s use of the “photograph” would not serve as a suitable substitute for someone who wished to collect Bill Frymire’s work. The reproduction of the “photograph” was not intended to increase sales and improperly capitalize on Frymire’s work. It is unlikely my client received extra business as a result of a photograph posted on their social media

There are many groups that hide behind religion in order to get these benefits. Scientology is one group that refers to themselves as a “New Religion.” They protect themselves with this right in order to get away with their actions. There have been many reports accusing Scientology of exploiting members physically and financially. They get away with these illegal activities by lying. Lying is something that the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, has presented as acceptable in the religion, which isn’t tolerated in many real religions. However, if the Charter was to address groups like Scientology with more severity, they would not be able to hide anymore. No longer would they get away with their crimes, but these groups, and so-called religions, will actually face the consequences. In addition, freedom of religion is misused when these groups go against their religion. This refers to religious movements that state they are preaching a religion. In reality, they are going against the basic principles of that religion to do what they feel is right. For instance, many cults like the KKK are based off Christianity, but they don’t follow Christian principles. They do this so that they can have the benefits of being a non-profit religious group, like tax exemptions, but then take advantage of this label to perform hate crimes and get away with them. For this reason, it is

The jury in Alabama agreed with Sullivan and found that the libelous action was in breach of Constitutional protections of speech and press. The jury in the circuit court awarded Sullivan five hundred thousand dollars in damages. This was the initial ruling against the New York Times who had lost. Sullivan had claimed he was libeled in the advertisement called Heed Their Rising Voices. In the libel action claim Sullivan the third paragraph in the advertisement read as follows “In Montgomery, Alabama, after students sang “My country tis of thee” on state capitol steps, their leaders were expelled from school and, truckloads of police armed with shotguns and tear gas ringed the Alabama State College Campus. When the entire student body protested by

The second argument would be is that the owner has a right to decline to print anything against their belief, and a photographer gay or not has a right to decline to photograph anti-gay or gay rally and a Christian printer has a right to decline to print messages that violate their belief. The right of free speech is to protect everyone, and it means that the government doesn’t get to force anyone to say things that contradict their deeply held belief. This is not a straight or gay issue but this is a human issue.

The majority consisted of Justice Earl Warren, Hugo L. Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, John M. Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron R. White, and Arthur J. Goldberg. The majority opinion was made by William J. Brennan, to protect the right to freedom of expression in the First Amendment, the Court rule that the criminal libel law should follow the same standards as civil libel law. True statements regardless of its malicious value will not be considered libel. While statements that are intentionally false or created with a rash disregard for the truth are considered to be libel and can be punished by the law. The restriction was modeled from a prior case, New York Times v. Sullivan, freedom of speech protection should not be exercise separately to a civil libel statute than to a criminal case. The Court concluded that the Louisiana Criminal Defamation Statute was unlawfully broad and that it breaches the protections of the First Amendment’s free

Libel tort law is defamation to a person’s reputation by print, signs, effigies, pictures, writing or any communication. The California court decided that because this article was

However Scientology is hard to openly and publically ridicule. For example in 2005 the traditionally offensive show South Park created an episode called Trapped in the Closet. In the episode the writers followed the main character Stan in his conversion to Scientology. In the end of the episode the creators of South Park expose the Scientology creation story. This story seemed so unbelievable at the time that the creators had to caption the bottom “what Scientologists actually believe.” This show took a lot of heat because of the true Scientology creation story. In fact the show was delayed in airing because of The Church of Scientology’s dismay with the show

To sum, the case is about an advertising the newspaper included some inaccurate story about the civic leaders, civil right events, and Sullivan. Sullivan (a public official) believed that the defamatory comments that were made of him were making a negative impact on his life, thus he sued the New York times. The court in Alabama at the time ruled “The law … implies legal injury from bare facts of publication itself, falsity and malice are presumed, general damages no need to presume.” Thus, the court from Alabama gave Sullivan a compensation of five hundred thousand dollars. New York times decided to take this case to the supreme court because they believe their 1st amendment rights were being violated. Therefore, a new question arose whether the first amendment protects defamatory, false statements concerning public officials? The court ruled that the 1st amendment does protect the publication of all statements, even false ones, concerning the conduct of a public official except when the statement was made with actual malice. Once again, we notice the irony of freedom of speech the issue is citizens are not informed that under the 1st amendment there is sufficient rights guarantee. It is not solely having the right to express our emotions towards the government, it is to expose information to citizens and have the citizens decided for themselves. Democracy does not work if the government or public official try to hide information from its citizens. Democracy function when there is a clear majority of press that expose the truth and allow people to determine what the issue is. Press must be able to protect us against an overreaching government. Sometimes executive power tries to control the press because they do not want to inform the truth about that for example the Watergates scandal, Edward Snowden, Wiki leaks and

The church of Scientology has been the subject of controversy since its inception. Its methods and beliefs have attracted the attention of scholars from around the world. The church has been under government investigation and has endured a countless amount of lawsuits (Reitman 14). It is also a hot topic by the media with several endorsements by some of the most recognized Hollywood celebrities. However, the main topic of debate regarding the Church of Scientology is its status as a religion. Some members claim that the church has helped them overcome their struggles and that they are happier people, while others condemn it as a dangerous cult (Sweeney). The church of Scientology is a religious group whose purpose is to retain their

In the past, there has always been conflict between the free press and the government. This conflict was very evident in the Pentagon Papers case, also known as New York Times Co. v. United States. Historically, the Supreme Court has disagreed on the limitations that can be placed on the First Amendment. The Supreme Court faced these issues in the case of The New York Times. The newspaper obtained a copy of a Defense Department report that explained government deception in the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers emerged when the American people disagreed on the United States involvement in the war. Under the First Amendment, The New York Times argued

Many people have heard of the revolutionary new religious practice called Scientology. However, the majority of people who have heard of it, have little knowledge of the principles and practices behind the religion. In fact, there is a dark side behind Scientology, and much speculation that the religion is a brainwashing cult. Many people are opposed to the religion because of its secretiveness, its extreme methods of teaching and its alleged use of mind control.

It’s not unknown that The Church of Scientology has been a contentious subject of conversation for decades. The controversial religion was originally discovered by a gentleman named L. Ron Hubbard in 1954 through the establishment of ideas in which he believed would act as an antidote to mental health concerns called Dianetics. After an unsuccessful attempt resulting in bankruptcy, Hubbard branched his ideas into the basis of a new found religion called Scientology ("The Beliefs and Teachings of Scientology”). To Hubbard’s advantage, Scientology expeditiously accelerated in growth, becoming one of the fastest expanding religions in the 20th century. Scientology pledged a “light at the end of the tunnel” to those wandering through dark times, and created a pathway to a faultless understanding of one’s true spiritual fulfillment through a system of self-knowledge in relation to one’s own life, community, and mankind. Due to the Scientology’s controversial beliefs, abnormal practices, and aberrant church-member relationships, the religion poses as a superlative model of church rebelling against society’s social norms.

“At what point do we take personal attacks, and permit those, as opposed to -- I fully accept you’re entitled, in some circumstances, to speak about any political issue you want. But where is the line between doing that, and creating hardship for an individual?” –Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In the case of Snyder V. Phelps, Two very passionate sides debated just that. The Snyder family accused Phelps, or Westboro, of the tort claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, after Westboro picketed Phelps’ son’s funeral. Westboro disputed this, claiming their protests were protected under The First Amendment.

The documentary ‘Going Clear’ is focused on the Church of Scientology. Some of the important figures in the documentary included Paul Haggis, Lawrence Wright, Sara Goldberg, Spanky Taylor, and Marthy Rathbun (Going Clear). In this documentary, these former scientologists were interviewed about their personal experiences, where they revealed information about what actually happened behind the doors of the Church. The documentary was based on Lawrence Wright’s book, ‘Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief’ and was a compilation of the opinions of several former scientologists about the true colors of Scientology and Hubbard’s history (Going Clear).

The civil liberties that the American people have are inalienable rights. The most important of these is the freedom of speech. Yet freedom of speech is not entirely protected; using hurtful, false, or damaging speech is not allowed. But how can the American government control something as basic as speech? There are laws against libel and slander but how are they perpetrated? This essay will explain how the court cases and laws have evolved and been clarified throughout America’s history up to present day.