Culture & Religion — March 3, 2010

Star Wars Cult

Scientologists defied copyright law for their latest promotional video, using clips from “Star Wars”, “Braveheart” and “Independence Day” to fire up its Las Vegas staff.

bigthinkeditor

Scientologists have defied copyright law for their latest promotional video, using clips from “Star Wars”, “Braveheart” and “Independence Day”, to get its Las Vegas members to sign up for a new Celebrity Center, where they can become an “ideal org” and “play for blood” with lightsabers and other sci fi tools. Despite previously invoking copyright law to have “embarrassing internal videos” taken down from YouTube, the Scientology clan have clearly had a lapse of memory, as film studios contacted by Gawker claimed neither knowledge or authorisation of the material’s use. Although Gawker does make it clear that the extent of the copyright infringement is as yet unknown given that it is unclear if the video (which was leaked to YouTube) was intended for distribution, or not.”

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