Judge to issue Tanners a 3rd restraining order
Deseret News 18Nov99 N1
Judge to issue Tanners a 3rd restraining order

U. S. District Court judge Tena Campbell told attorneys yesterday that she would issue a new order today in the LDS Church's copyright dispute with critics Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Campbell may change the two previous orders she has issued, or may issue a completely new order with new terms.

The Tanners filed a motion earlier this week asking Campbell to dismiss the lawsuit against them, saying that the Church hasn't even claimed that the material posted to their website is copyrighted as an original work. The Church has claimed that the entire Handbook of Instructions has a 'compilation copyright,' meaning that it is a compilation of works previously copyrighted by the Church.

After the Church filed its lawsuit, the Tanners removed the 17 pages of the Handbook of Instructions that they had posted. They replaced them with links to other sites on the Internet where the entire Handbook of Instructions is available. The Church then asked Campbell to issue an order for the Tanners to remove those links also. But the Tanners maintain that pointing to another location where copyright infringement is occurring is not a violation of the law.

Campbell's order will stand until she hears the Church's motion for a preliminary injuction next week. She also said that she will hear the Tanner's motion for dismissal of the Church's complaint in January.