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| The documentary included Alain Roth, a ] leader and former head of Landmark Education's now defunct division in France. | The documentary included Alain Roth, a ] leader and former head of Landmark Education's now defunct division in France. | ||
| Landmark's media representative, Sophie McLean, dismissed the documentary's description of her company as a "cult" or even as "cult-like", and denied that its business depends on ]. In support of her contention, she cites three academics: Dr. ] (former president of the ]), Prof. Dr. ] (Chief, department of forensic psychiatry, ],<ref></ref> and French ] ]. Landmark paid Abgrall to do a report<ref name="Nouvel"> translation of Nouvel Observateur timeline.</ref>{{dead link}} on it, but later in the documentary Abgrall denies that he took a position either way on characterising Landmark as a cult or not. | Landmark's media representative, Sophie McLean, dismissed the documentary's description of her company as a "cult" or even as "cult-like", and denied that its business depends on ]. In support of her contention, she cites three academics: Dr. ] (former president of the ]), Prof. Dr. ] (Chief, department of forensic psychiatry, ],<ref></ref> and French ] ]. Landmark paid Abgrall to do a report<ref name="Nouvel"> translation of Nouvel Observateur timeline.</ref>{{dead link|date=September 2014}} on it, but later in the documentary Abgrall denies that he took a position either way on characterising Landmark as a cult or not. | ||
| ==On-screen commentators== | ==On-screen commentators== | ||
Revision as of 04:32, 17 September 2014
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| Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous | |
|---|---|
| File:Inside Landmark Forum 2 of 6.jpg"Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus", 2004 | |
| Directed by | Karima Tabti |
| Written by | Pièces à Conviction (Incriminating Evidence) (French news program) |
| Produced by | France 3, Elise Lucet, Herve Brusini |
| Starring | Elise Lucet, Host/Moderator; Laurent Richard, France 3 undercover investigative journalist; Alain Roth, Landmark Education head, France; Sophie McLean, Landmark Education spokeswoman and Landmark Forum Leader; Jean-Pierre Jougla, Attorney; Jean-Marie Abgrall, Psychiatrist, author of Mechanics of the Sects; Jean-Pierre Brard, Deputy Mayor, Montreuil, France; Christian Lujan, Social psychologist, Psychoanalyst; Jocelyne Berthelot, Landmark Education volunteer; Mona Vasquez, former Scientology member; Laurent Mournais, former participant; Brigitte Thelier, former participant; Pierre, anonymous former participant; Thomas Lardeur, consultant; Arnaud Palisson, intelligence officer and author of A Major Enquiry on Scientology |
| Edited by | Pascal Richard, Lionel de Coninck Emmanuel Charrieras |
| Distributed by | France 3 |
| Release date | 24 May 2004 |
| Running time | 65 minutes |
| Country | France  |
| Language | French |
Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous (Voyage to the Land of the New Gurus) is a French television-documentary. It presented an investigation of the activities of Landmark Education. The investigative journalism program Pièces à Conviction started filming the documentary in 2003, and the channel France 3 broadcast it in France on 24 May 2004.
Subjects of the program
The documentary included Alain Roth, a Landmark Forum leader and former head of Landmark Education's now defunct division in France.
Landmark's media representative, Sophie McLean, dismissed the documentary's description of her company as a "cult" or even as "cult-like", and denied that its business depends on brainwashing. In support of her contention, she cites three academics: Dr. Raymond Fowler (former president of the American Psychological Association), Prof. Dr. Norbert Nedopil (Chief, department of forensic psychiatry, University of Munich, and French psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall. Landmark paid Abgrall to do a report on it, but later in the documentary Abgrall denies that he took a position either way on characterising Landmark as a cult or not.
On-screen commentators
France 3's Pièces à Conviction series brought in several noted French academics and authors to sit on its commentator-panel during the program. Apart from those discussed below, the program included a participant and volunteer in Landmark Education, former Landmark Education participants, and other commentators including Catherine Picard, president of UNADFI.
Psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall
Jean-Marie Abgrall, M.D., a French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic medicine, and graduate in criminal law, wrote La mécanique des sectes (Payot 1996 et 2004, ISBN 2-228-89505-9), which has appeared translated into at least ten different languages (English-language translation: Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults, published by Algora, 1999: ISBN 1-892941-04-X). Landmark Education paid Abgrall €45,600 Euros to write a positive report on itself in 2001, and to declare the organization "not a cult".
Pièces a Conviction staff interviewed Abgrall and asked him to comment on his alleged assertion that Landmark Education is not a cult. He responded by saying "It's not true that I said it's not a cult. I neither wrote that it is a cult nor that it's not a cult." He went on to point out that "here is no control of a psychologist". He continued by describing the training of the individuals who led the Landmark Forum, saying: "These guys aren't trained, as if tomorrow you set up shop as a psychotherapist. I mean, that's what's shocking."
Repercussions
In June 2004, a month after the Pièces à Conviction program aired, a French government agency (L’Inspection du Travail, "Labour Inspection") investigated labor practices regarding people who volunteered for Landmark, and sent a report to the government.
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. 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.
The Internet Archive fought 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 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".
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".
See also
- About-Picard law
- The Century of the Self, episode part 3 of 4
- Human Potential Movement
- Investigative journalism
- MIVILUDES
- Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France
- Status of religious freedom in France
References and footnotes
- Homepage, Abteilung für Forensische Psychiatrie, Klinikum Innenstadt der Universität München
- English translation of Nouvel Observateur timeline.
- Self-Help Group Backs Off Attack on Internet Critic, Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 30, 2006.
- Landmark and the Internet Archive. Landmark's Letter to the Internet Archive. Landmark's Letter to Google. Internet Archive's Objections to Landmark Subpoena.
- Landmark Education Fires Back At EFF, Redherring.com
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) challenged our actions and alleged to the press that our copyright claims were bogus, which statement was then disseminated on the Internet. Landmark Education’s goal is not to silence anyone, but to protect its core IP resources, which were infringed by the video. While we appreciate the work of the EFF, the allegation that our copyright claim is bogus is entirely inaccurate. The facts are clear that the Landmark Forum program has for many years been copyrighted. Materials covered by this copyright registration were included throughout the video.” - Landmark and the Internet Archive
- Video Interview with Electronic Frontier Foundation, Enric Cirne, 8 November 2006, Tech Alley.
- Second Video Interview with Electronic Frontier Foundation, Enric Cirne, November, 2006, Tech Alley.
-
"EFF and Landmark: Cards on the Table", Electronic Frontier Foundation, 9 November 2006
"While we appreciate the kind words, we disagree with Mr. Schreiber's copyright analysis. To the extent that the documentary includes any materials copyrighted by Landmark, that use is clearly for purposes of criticism and commentary, i.e., a non-infringing fair use. Yesterday we released a draft of our motion to quash, which explains in detail (see pages 11-16) why Landmark's copyright claim does not hold water. Indeed, it's not even a close call. Sorry, Landmark, but your claim is still bogus." - "Google faces legal challenges over video service"
- Landmark and the Internet Archive, Electronic Frontier Foundation, case page, Landmark's Misuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- Landmark Education piece (Hebrew), About Yad L'Achim (English), 2006.
- Landmark Drops Copyright Infringement Subpoenas On Google And Anonymous Critic, InformationWeek, 1 December 2006
- TechWeb article, Yahoo! News, 1 December 2006.
- Landmark Education vs. a link on Apologetics Index, Religion News Blog, Netherlands, November 17, 2006, Anton and Janet Hein-Hudson
- "Cease and desist" letter, Landmark Education, to StudioSolutions, concerning Cult Awareness and Information Centre, 13 November 2006.
-
Self-Help Group Backs Off Attack on Internet Critic, Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 30, 2006.
"In a settlement reached Tuesday, Landmark agreed to withdraw the subpoena to Google and end its quest to pierce the anonymity of the video's poster. Landmark has also withdrawn its subpoena to the Internet Archive. EFF represents both the anonymous critic and the Internet Archive." -
Settlement agreement
" from Google and all other internet sites upon which he/she/it posted the video, and further agrees not to re-post the Video in any form on Google or any other internet site in whole or in part." - CICNS. "Émission "pièces à conviction du Lundi 24 mai 2004 su France 3 : Voyage au pays des nouveaux gourous"" (in French). Sectes-infos. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
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External links
- Landmark and the Internet Archive, Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Draft Motion to Quash Landmark Subpoena, 8 November 2006
- Cults in France, Recorded with the Presidency of the National Assembly on 22 December 1995, Mr. Alain Gest, Reporter, Mr. Jacques Guyard, Deputies. National Assembly, Tenth Legislature.
- Réponse officielle à France 3, Landmark Education's response to the France 3 documentary.
- Presentation of International Landmark Education, Interdepartmental Mission of Vigilance and Fight Against Sectarian Drifts, (translated)
- Media/Press
- Google faces legal challenges over video service, The Washington Post, 10 November 2006
- Landmark Forum Violates Constitution and Federal Law by Trying to Chill Speech, PressZoom, 1 November 2006
- Landmark Ed, EFF, negotiations, p2pnet.net News, 10 November 2006
- Video interview with Kurt Opsahl, interview with Attorney for Electronic Frontier Foundation, regarding Landmark's DMCA Subpoenas, November 2006
- Landmark Education Fires Back At EFF, Redherring.com
- YouTube Copyright row, Warez.com News, 14 November 2006
- Landmark Drops Copyright Infringement Subpoenas On Google And Anonymous Critic, InformationWeek, December 1, 2006.
- "At home with the gurus in neckties", Nouvel Observateur, French newspaper, 19 May 2005, by Marie Lemonnier.
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