PROGRAM/MEETING

Tuesday, April 10,  at Christ United Methodist Church. Regular Meeting begins at 7:30pm.  Board Meeting at 6:30pm.   Our program will be videos from significant presentations made at the CAN conference of 1995.

SAVE ACME RECEIPTS

Dorothy Jemson is concluding the collection of Acme receipts this month which we use a fund raiser for CISNEO.  Please forward them to Dorothy at 1461 Westvale Ave., Akron, Ohio  44313 ASAP.
 

EXPOSE OF OHIO CULT NEARING COMPLETION

            New York author Jeff C. Stevenson has completed a lengthy book manuscript tentatively titled “In a Dark Place, The true story of a Group of Believers who were deceived, almost destroyed and finally delivered from one of the most brutal cults of the 1970’s.”  The book details the early formation of the Church of the Risen Christ (CRC) and focuses on the group’s Christian rock musical group, The All Saved Freak Band (ASFB).

            Stevenson’s first interest was in the band’s music, which is considered in Christian rock music circles as one of the most significant early influences in the genre.   One member of ASFB, Glenn Schwartz, was considered to be among the world’s top blues guitarists.  Glenn was a founding member of The James Gang with Joe Walsh (who would later form the rock group The Eagles) and a former member of the rock group Pacific Gas and Electric.  Other members of the musical group contributed significantly to the band’s influence on the genre through their highly creative song writing and performance talents.  After exploring the musical aspects of CRC, the author realized that a much larger story of the aspects of a cultic group existed, and the resulting book chronicles stories of mind control and physical abuse of both adults and children. 

            CISNEO president Ron Taggart was recruited into the group in 1971, and many other members came from Kent, Stow, and Wooster, Ohio.  Ex-members of the group recently met for a reunion on August 11, 2007 at a park near Windsor, Ohio, the same town where the leader of the group, Larry Hill, still resides.  Stevenson also attended the reunion and conducted interviews with some ex-members who he had previously been unable to contact.   
 

Jeffs' victim Wall wants to help girls fleeing sect
Deseret Morning News, October 2, 2007  By Ben Winslow

            The star witness in the case against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs said she wants to create a fund for girls leaving the Fundamentalist LDS Church, not profit off the so-called "prophet."  

"My goal is not for money. My goal is to give young girls and women the opportunity I didn't have as a 14-year-old girl being forced and placed into that kind of position," Elissa Wall said during an appearance Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."  Wall filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against Jeffs and the FLDS Church before she went to Washington County authorities to report her claims of rape. A proposed settlement calling for a $1 million emergency fund for girls leaving the FLDS Church was reported by the Deseret Morning News last week.

Wall was married at age 14 to her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed, in a Nevada motel room ceremony that was presided over by Jeffs. It was her compelling testimony that led to Jeffs' conviction on charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. A rape charge has also been filed against Steed based on his testimony for the defense in Jeffs' trial.

Wall's appearance on the morning show did not reveal much that she didn't already say on the witness stand and in a post-verdict news conference. She sought to clarify that she was not out for money, as was portrayed during Jeffs' trial.

As pictures of her wedding day were flashed on the screen, Wall described her feelings of being married to her cousin.

"I was very young at the time, so it was overwhelming and extremely scary," she said. "By that point I was just numb and I was a young 14-year-old trying to just do what everyone told me to do."

Wall, who is now 21, has changed her name again. Her attorneys have said she and her current husband, Lamont Barlow, live in a sort-of "witness protection program."  Jeffs, 51, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.  "I think that if Warren Jeffs was to receive one month in jail for every family he destroyed — and I mean a family unit — I think he would spend the rest of his life in jail," Barlow said.
 

Uri Geller's YouTube takedown 
Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2007  By Kembrew McLeod 

The 1970s 'psychic' may be abusing copyright law to make embarrassing clips vanish.

Those of us who grew up in the 1970s probably remember a popular psychic named Uri Geller, who was always on TV back then, bending spoons with his brain, correctly guessing the content of people's doodles and generally blowing the audience's mind. But who could have guessed that his powers would eventually warp free speech and copyright law in the 21st century?

          Geller got rich insisting that his supernatural abilities were real, so a number of magicians and skeptics -- most notably James "The Amazing" Randi -- mounted a campaign to discredit the performer. Randi exposed Geller during numerous TV appearances, demonstrating that his mental feats were nothing more than trickery. These old clips, including a NOVA program called "Secrets of the Psychics," have recently begun appearing on YouTube and other video-sharing websites.   This has gotten the alleged psychic, well, all bent out of shape.

      Over the last year, he and his business associate have successfully removed many of these clips from the Web by charging that they violate his copyrights. In the 13-minute NOVA program, Geller only claims ownership of eight seconds, yet that was enough for him to file a "takedown" demand with YouTube, using -- or abusing, depending on how you view it -- the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

      The DMCA protects sites like YouTube from copyright infringement claims if, and only if, they quickly comply with takedown requests from copyright holders. These sites have an itchy trigger finger when pressured, often not even asking for proof of ownership. The NOVA program most certainly isn't owned by Geller, nor has he provided proof that he controls the eight seconds in question. He just said that he did.

     Using the DMCA, aggressive litigants like Geller and such copyright-hoarding companies as Viacom and Disney can simply make your work disappear if they do not like what you have to say, something that was much more difficult in the pre-digital world.

      Even if Geller did own the material, posting the clips would not infringe on his copyrights because of the important U.S. legal doctrine of "fair use." Fair use is an intuitively named concept designed to enable reproductions of copyrighted material in a manner considered "fair." If you aren't using the copyrighted material to mooch off someone's labor, but instead are adding to it for the purposes of commentary, education, parody, news reporting or other transformative uses, then it's fair use. Geller's critics post clips of his old performances not to make money but to engage in a public discussion on his sleight of hand.

     When people make overreaching copyright claims just to censor speech they don't like, they are abusing the law. The Supreme Court has consistently held that copyright was designed as a means to promote the dissemination of knowledge and creative expression, not to suppress it. Of course, fair use is not a free pass that allows anyone to copy and distribute anything they wish, but it was nevertheless designed to make sure intellectual copyright and the 1st Amendment can peacefully coexist.

      These "copy fights" are first and foremost a free-speech issue. Sadly, many intellectual-property owners and lawyers see it purely as an economic concern. Another problem is that websites often faint at the sound of threatening language in legal nastygrams. It's safer to cave to spurious demands than risk lawsuits from brand-name bullies or obsessives such as Geller.

      If YouTube is our new public sphere, we are in trouble, at least when it comes to free speech. YouTube's parent company, Google, is more concerned with its bottom line than anything else, whether it's copyright censorship in the U.S. or political censorship in China.  But all is not hopeless. The DMCA contains a legal tool for resisting unreasonable copyright claims -- the "counter-notice." That's what I filed after YouTube pulled a satirical collage video of mine that mashed up media from another strange staple of my childhood, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."         My piece excerpted clips of Fred Rogers saying ominous things such as, "You can never go down the drain" and "boys' and girls' arms and legs don't fall off when you put them in water." (Yes, he actually said that.) The show's copyright owner, Family Communications Inc., filed a takedown notice against my clip in 2006, and it took four months for YouTube to make it available again after I persistently argued that it was fair use. Since then, it has provoked heated arguments on the YouTube discussion board -- a reminder that we should encourage debate and discussion, not suppress it.

     As our culture increasingly becomes fenced off, it's all the more important for us to be able to comment publicly on the images, ideas and words that saturate us on a daily basis without worrying about an expensive, if meritless, lawsuit. If we don't defend ourselves, we'll be complicit in letting our freedom erode. By standing up for fair use and against overreaching copyright claims, we can create havens for expression in the age of intellectual property.

Kembrew McLeod is a University of Iowa communication professor and author of a book and director of a companion documentary, both titled "Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property." 
 

Uprooted from FLDS homes, Lost Boys fix up their own 
Salt Lake Tribune, September 17, 2007  By Mark Havnes and Brooke Adams 

ST. GEORGE - With hammers, saws, drills and determination, about 15 young males displaced from their homes in a polygamous enclave are helping renovate "The House Just Off Bluff," where they hope to live while going to school or work until they can transition into their own places.       "All the [remodeling] work is being done by the boys," said Michelle Benward, clinical director of New Frontiers for Families, based in Tropic. "They do excellent work."

    The "Lost Boys," as the young males are known, voluntarily leave or are asked to move out of the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., because they violated rules of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.     Their plight has attracted national media attention - which led to potential jurors for Warren S. Jeffs' trial, under way in the 5th District Court in St. George, being asked what they had seen in the media about the "Lost Boys."

    Jeffs' trial, on two counts of being an accomplice to rape related to a marriage he conducted in 2001, will resume this morning.   Jeffs became president of the FLDS church in 2002 and has held members to a strict behavior code based on early Mormon teachings. But just how many teens have left or been asked to leave the community because of that code is unclear.

    Advocates and government authorities have used figures ranging from 400 to 2,000 over a time frame that ranges from six to 10 years or longer. "This is not just starting with Warren Jeffs," said ex-FLDS member Isaac Wyler, 41, who still lives in the community. "Warren may have taken it to a new level but it was going on when I was a kid."

    The acts that get teens in trouble include watching R-rated movies, listening to modern music and flirting with girls. Wyler said his younger brother was kicked out in 2001 by the former FLDS president Rulon T. Jeffs because he kissed a girl.   "He was done forever on that," Wyler said.  Some teenage boys and young men leave the twin towns, which is the church's home base, because they do not want to follow the faith or fear being assigned marriage to a girl they don't like. Advocates say they also are driven off to reduce competition for wives.

    New Frontiers for Families is working with the Diversity Foundation, another nonprofit focused on the FLDS teens, to set up the home, which was given to the advocates by an anonymous donor.     Benward said when finished, the eight-bedroom home will be able to take up to 15 boys. It also will serve as a drop-in center.   But before anyone can live there, the nonprofit has to clear a hurdle with the city.

    The commercially zoned area where the home is located allows for treatment but not transitional housing, said Linda Brooks, deputy city recorder for the city's planning commission.   Brooks said that the group has to get a zone change from the city before the home can open.  Among the challenges: There is no current zone that fits the home's planned use, some neighbors have complained and a city ordinance prohibits more than four unrelated people living in a residence.

    Brooks said that Benward is working with the city attorney's office on the zone change - and has her own reason for hoping it gets approved.     About a year ago, Brooks and her husband opened their home to a displaced young man from the twin towns.     The 21-year-old was told to leave home by his older brothers in 2004 after he spoke out when Jeffs exiled their father. One of his younger brothers voluntarily left the community later, Brooks said.     Her husband met the young man while volunteering in a court-related program. Today, the young man is thriving in college.

    During a tour of the house, Benward said that when the boys leave the FLDS community they migrate to other towns, where they are forced to fend for themselves.     That often means getting a construction job while staying in communal apartments, with up to 15 sleeping on the floors, or in their cars.   "When they come out, it is into a world of 'gentiles' they have been taught are in disfavor with God," said Benward. "They have a hard time interacting. They don't talk, but just look at you like they are filled with trauma and fear. It takes a long time for them to adjust."     Benward said beside their lack of social skills, most can't manage money and many get in trouble with the law for abusing drugs or alcohol.  "A lot of the time, if they got a ticket in Colorado City they were called before the [FLDS high council], where it was dealt with," said Benward. "So here [St. George], when they get a ticket, they just wait for someone to take them to church. They don't understand how to coordinate with the court."

    Brigham Holm, 23, who voluntarily left Colorado City five years ago, is helping lay tile floors in the house.  He said because he lived part of his life in Salt Lake City, he was better adjusted when he left, but said that is not true for many who've been kicked out for innocuous reasons.  "Usually it's kids [kicked out] who do something like watch TV," said Holm.     The psychological grip that FLDS leaders have on followers, coupled with their isolation, makes it challenging to leave, Holm said.

    Benward said the New Frontiers for Families program is funded with a $95,000 state grant that helps pay a stipend to Benward and two staff members. Everything else is donated, from the house to the food, furniture, paint, cabinets and appliances.  While organizers work through the city regulations, groups of Lost Boys continue working on the home. Jami Christensen, a staff member who stays there, said 15 to 20 show up to work on any given night.   "Sometimes it's a challenge," she said. "They can push the boundaries."     But she hopes the program is a success for the sake of the boys.

    Once in the program, the young men will be given an education or work plan designed to help them become self-sufficient.  Participants will have an 11 p.m. curfew, cannot have unsupervised visits and must abstain from alcohol or drugs.    "These kids deserve the help," said Christensen. "They are good, hard workers doing what they need to do. They are our future."