Bible & Gospel Trust v. Twinam [1]

Bible & Gospel Trust, associated with a religious group known as the Exclusive Brethren, sued Sallie and Timothy Twinam claiming that they were the owners and operators of the website Peebs.ne [2]t [2], which is critical of the Exclusive Brethren.  

The complaint [3], which includes claims of copyright infringement, conversion, and tortious interference with a contractual relationship, arises from the alleged posting of materials from the Exclusive Brethren's now-defunct website, exclusivebrethren.net.  Bible & Gospel Trust claims that all interests in exclusivebrethren.net and its contents were transferred to it as part of a settlement agreement in an earlier case [4], and that the unauthorized posting of the material on Peebs.net constitutes a violation of Bible & Gospel Trust’s copyrights.  

Although Timothy Twinam denied being the owner of Peebs.net in his answer [5], he later admitted to owning the site during discovery, according to a Peebs.net press release [6].  Sallie Twinam admits [7] to having been a “nominal owner” of the site only for the period of time between April 5, 2007 and January 25, 2008.  Both deny that the alleged copyrighted material was published on Peebs.net.  

Bible & Gospel Trust is seeking an injunction preventing the publication of its copyrighted material, an order compelling Twinam and Peebs.net to destroy all copies of the copyrighted material in their possession and to publish a retraction and an apology, and compensatory and punitive damages.

Timothy Twinam has filed a special motion to strike [8] under Vermont's Anti-SLAPP statute (12 V.S.A. § 1041 [9]).  The court is treating this motion as a motion for summary judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 [10], but has yet to rule on this motion.