Despite the impression NewTeeVee gave, The Bridge movie is alive and well on the internet and on this very page that you refer to in your article.

If it’s maker Brett Hanover could speak his mind without reprecussions from The Church of Scientology, I suspect he’d thank you for taking the time to see his attempst to give the viewer a small but significant piece of what scientology does not want the public to see.

You mention Fair Use within a documentary format. It’s interesting how Scientology was not able to prevent filmaker Karl-Rainer Blumenthal from creating and distributing his ‘Friend of Mankind ‘ documentary abouty L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology using a compilation of historical media critical of L. Ron Hubbard. It was the lack of copyright ownership to the content that prevented them from doing so.

‘Friend Of Mankind ‘ is an excellent documentary for the uninformed and informed alike. Both it , The Bridge movie and many others can be found over at Mark Bunker’s XenuTv
http://www.xenutv.com/friendofmankind.htm
http://www.xenutv.com/bridge/index.html

It is also not controllable by scientology because they never anticipated how media would evolvenor did they see that the internet was going to be it’s biggest battle. So far, the internet is winning and for the average me, that is a good thing.

You also provided an excellent worst-case scenerio with The Church of Scientology vs teen filmmaker Brett Hanover and his movie, The Bridge.

Scientology is the internet’s biggest bully . Brett is not the first, nor the last to have been scared by the church attornies or gagged into submission because of a copyright issue. However, Brett is probably the youngest and most talented to date.

Many were horrified to see how quickly the church pounced and how easily Brett gave in . Victims like Brett are cornered into silence…….never able to explain what it was that the church held over their head that forced the agreement to be *silent. That’s part of their plan to silence critics and Brett was no exception to the rule.

There’s an excellent web page that documents this stuff:
‘Scientology Gag Agreements – A Conspiracy for Silence’
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologyscandals/silence.htm

For some victims, it’s extorted silence but presumably Brett , being a young man, probably envisioned a life of perpetual fear and poverty, so no one I know blames him for the decision to forsake any association with his own movie.

Thankfully there are places on the net, like newteevee, where one can see the movie The Church of Scientology does not want anyone to see. :) Brett is a bright and talented young man and the critics of Scientology appreciate all that he did to get The Bridge done and out to the public. He certainly gets extra kudos for taking on the project in the first place!

Thanks for bringing attention to the real threat that wealth and power can have over free speech on the internet. Viacom’s fake take down notice is just the tip of the iceberg.