Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous - The Documentary On The Internet

The Documentary On The Internet

From September 2006 onwards, anonymous posters sent copies of the documentary — including versions with English-language subtitles — to several video-sharing web-sites and bitTorrent sites.

In October 2006 Landmark Education issued subpoenas pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a piece of United States legislation which allows content-owners to issue subpoenas to identify alleged infringers — even without filing a lawsuit. Landmark Education sent subpoenas to Google Video, YouTube and the Internet Archive, demanding details of the identity of the person(s) who had uploaded copies (with English-language subtitles) to these websites.

Challenges to Landmark Education's efforts arose on multiple fronts. The Internet Archive commenced fighting its subpoena from Landmark Education, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed official objections on its behalf. The EFF (operating on behalf of the anonymous entity who uploaded the video) also planned to file a motion to quash Landmark's DMCA subpoena to Google Video. Google advised Landmark that it would not produce the requested information pending a ruling on that motion. YouTube sent notification to the user about its subpoena, and planned to give the user a reasonable opportunity to move to quash it.

Art Schreiber, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Landmark Education, commented on the issue, raising issues of intellectual property (IP) in RedHerring Magazine in an article dated 2006-11-03. Schreiber affirmed that the Electronic Frontier Foundation had released a statement characterizing Landmark Education's copyright claims to the documentary as "bogus". He went on to portray the claim of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as "entirely inaccurate".

On 8 November 2006 the Electronic Frontier Foundation posted a Draft Motion to Quash Landmark Subpoena on their website. Independent filmmaker Enric Cirne interviewed a representative from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Landmark Education's usage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Cirne also interviewed another staff attorney on-camera about the Electronic Frontier Foundation's actions regarding the issuing of the DMCA subpoenas.

On 9 November 2006 the Electronic Frontier Foundation responded to Art Schreiber's commentary and raised the issue of fair use in a post entitled "EFF and Landmark: Cards on the Table". In their statement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that any use of alleged material — even if it were copyrighted — occurred "for purposes of criticism and commentary" and constituted a "non-infringing fair use". The Electronic Frontier Foundation asserted that Landmark's copyright claim remained "bogus".

On 10 November 2006, the Reuters newsservice published an article about the dispute.The Washington Post and many other news sources subsequently disseminated this article.

The Cult Awareness Information Centre (Australia: http://www.caic.org.au/ ) has made a non-official copy of the video available in flash video format. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has cited this location, as has an article about Landmark Education on the "Yad L'Achim website, InformationWeek and Yahoo! News.

On 17 November 2006, the Apologetics Index website received a "cease and desist" letter from attorneys in Amsterdam representing Landmark Education. The letter stated that Landmark Education demanded Apologetics Index remove their hyperlink to the Cult Awareness Information Centre's streaming video version of the documentary, due to alleged "copyright infringement" of their "Landmark Forum Leaders Manual" (TXu 1-120-461). The Apologetics Index responded on their site that after reading the responses from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they did not intend to comply with Landmark's demands. Further information on this matter appears on the Apologetics page devoted to Landmark Education.

Within the same period of time, Landmark Education also sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action to the Internet service provider of the Cult Awareness and Information Center website, "StudioSolutions", in Australia. Landmark again used the argument of alleged copyright infringement of material from their "Landmark Forum Leader's Manual".

The Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a statement in a post on their website regarding Landmark Education's legal letters in Amsterdam and Australia, entitled: "Landmark Forum's Internet Censorship Campaign Goes Down Under". The post includes a request to Landmark's General Counsel Art Schreiber, utilizing some Landmark Education jargon (take a stand, racket, winning formula):

In public statements, Landmark General Counsel Art Schreiber insists that Landmark supports free speech. We urge Landmark to take a stand for the principles of free expression and get out of the censorship racket—the answer to criticism is to explain and promote your own view. Landmark may believe that using copyright notices to takedown criticism is a winning formula, but it will ultimately come back to haunt Landmark.

In an agreement reached on 30 November 2006, Landmark Education withdrew their subpoenas against Internet Archive and the anonymous poster to Google Video. The settlement included the acknowledgment that the poster of the video will not repost it to the Internet "in whole or in part."

The Centre d'Information et de Conseil des Nouvelles Spiritualités (CICNS), a French association for the defense of religious freedom and conscience, criticized the documentary for its lack of contradictory debate, stating that the program is "an undertaking of destruction of Landmark Education".